The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires
A Novel
-
-
4.1 • 682 Ratings
-
-
- $2.99
-
- $2.99
Publisher Description
“This funny and fresh take on a classic tale manages to comment on gender roles, racial disparities, and white privilege all while creeping me all the way out. So good.”—Zakiya Dalila Harris, author of The Other Black Girl
Steel Magnolias meets Dracula in this New York Times best-selling horror novel about a women's book club that must do battle with a mysterious newcomer to their small Southern town.
Bonus features:
• Reading group guide for book clubs
• Hand-drawn map of Mt. Pleasant
• Annotated true-crime reading list by Grady Hendrix
• And more!
Patricia Campbell’s life has never felt smaller. Her husband is a workaholic, her teenage kids have their own lives, her senile mother-in-law needs constant care, and she’s always a step behind on her endless to-do list. The only thing keeping her sane is her book club, a close-knit group of Charleston women united by their love of true crime. At these meetings they’re as likely to talk about the Manson family as they are about their own families.
One evening after book club, Patricia is viciously attacked by an elderly neighbor, bringing the neighbor's handsome nephew, James Harris, into her life. James is well traveled and well read, and he makes Patricia feel things she hasn’t felt in years. But when children on the other side of town go missing, their deaths written off by local police, Patricia has reason to believe James Harris is more of a Bundy than a Brad Pitt. The real problem? James is a monster of a different kind—and Patricia has already invited him in.
Little by little, James will insinuate himself into Patricia’s life and try to take everything she took for granted—including the book club—but she won’t surrender without a fight in this blood-soaked tale of neighborly kindness gone wrong.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
When Patricia Campbell, a bored, housewife in 1990s Charleston, S.C., sighs, "Don't you wish that something exciting would happen around here?" she all but invites the chilling horrors that soon enmesh her and her friends in this clever, addictive vampire thriller from Hendrix (We Sold Our Souls). Patricia is one of a clutch of local women who assuage their ennui by forming a book club to discuss pulpy true crime chronicles. Their lives are upended by the arrival of James Harris, an outsider who easily ingratiates himself into their community, bringing an influx of money and good fortune to the town. Patricia alone finds Harris's lack of traditional identification and sensitivity to daylight peculiar. When people begin to disappear, she struggles to convince her friends that Harris is more sinister than he appears. Hendrix draws shrewd parallels between the serial killers documented in the book club's picks and Harris's apparent vampire persona, loading his gruesome story with perfectly-pitched allusions to classic horror novels and true crime accounts. This powerful, eclectic novel both pays homage to the literary vampire canon and stands singularly within it.
Customer Reviews
I didn’t want the story to end.
I’m familar with author Grady Hendrix because I read his novels The Final Girl’s Support Group and How to Sell A Haunted House. I truly enjoy reading his novels.
The Southern Book Club’s Guide To Slaying Vampire is not the story that I expected it to be. It is a more complicated story than I imagine. It starts as the story of a housewife named Patricia Campbell who is annoyed that her husband Carter volunteered one summer to take care of his ailing elderly mom. He knew good and well that he was not going to do it. She would. One evening while taking out the trash she’s bitten and attacked by a neighbor. Through that experience she meets a man named James Harris who claims that he is the neighbor’s nephew. Patricia has a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach that he is not who he seems to be.
I’ve read quite a few tales about vampires. I think this one is unique. Initially, I assumed that this story would be similar to a Buffy the vampire scenario with Patricia joining her fellow book club members. They would take on vampires and such. Well, that situation happens but the circumstances are much different than I imagined and more sinister.
I give this book four stars out of five . The writing was familar to me because I’m a fan of the author. The pacing was medium. There are a few unsettling scenes of gore , drug references and sexual assault. I was satisfied with the ending and didn’t want to say good bye to Patricia or the rest of the main characters. Even the antagonist was interesting.
Slow start, but quick read
The start was slow for me, but once I got to the “meat”, I couldn’t put it down. I really loved Patricia, Mrs. Green, and the other ladies. A true depiction of how Southern hospitality can bite you in the butt.
Slow start but MAN what an ending!!!
I had a hard time getting into this book at first… but once I was in the meat of it.. captivating. Could not put it down!! You’ll hang on every word. Not for the faint of heart. Definitely descriptive and grotesque, but you feel as if you’re in it with the characters!