The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

Amy  

fantasy, horror

In The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, six neighbors create a book club and become very close friends until a man moves into the neighborhood and one of the ladies suspects him of crimes. Can Patricia convince the others that she’s in her right mind?

This was one crazy book. I enjoyed the premise at the beginning. I’m bound to love any book that starts in 1988, one of my best years! I also love any book that understands what it’s like running a household and can poke fun at the less enjoyable aspects of it. The brief commentary on book club structure also hit its mark.

This novel was filled with humor at the beginning. At times, it bordered on silliness. But I went with it hoping for a payoff. I was not happy that the teenage boy in Patricia’s family was obsessed with Nazis. Why would Grady Hendrix include this “interest” as something that was not concerning to his parents? I feel it would be very alarming to most parents. Within a ridiculous story, this reality check seemed the most shocking (and, frankly, upsetting) to me. Was the author trying to correlate the Nazis with monsters, perhaps? That’s the only reason I can think to include this upsetting thread in the storyline. Sadly, they do not correlate since Nazis were not fantasy. I will not forgive the author for this misguided attempt at equality.

Then, 2/3 of the way through, a big crisis occurs which was surprising to me. But the way Patricia’s husband handled it was even worse and truly irresponsible, especially considering he’s a psychiatric doctor and should have known not to involve their children that way. I cannot go into details because it would give much away but, again, this is something for which I cannot forgive the author.

Then the story suddenly takes a big leap in time which breaks the momentum. I became furious at Patricia’s husband for all of his actions and attitudes from this point onward. The author transitioned him from largely absent to largely high-handed and selfish. In fact, all the men in the story became guilty of misdeeds and mistreatment by this point. And all the women were ineffective, blind, and helpless. I could not believe Patricia would let things go on if she truly feared for children’s lives.

Then it became a horror novel for a while. But the absolute scariest part had to do with a cockroach. Let’s just say that Indiana Jones would have died if I were the one who had to turn the lever in a hole crawling with bugs in The Temple of Doom. The (second—there was an earlier one too!) cockroach scene was almost unbearable for me. I’m sure the author would be thrilled to know my reaction with that scene. Alas, I was not amused!

I think what bugged me most about this novel is that it’s a bit schizophrenic. It starts as a comedy, becomes a horror show, and then ends as a tribute to the things that can be accomplished when women support each other. As with most horror films, the ending is not really satisfactory.

The audiobook was narrated by Bahni Turpin who is one of my favorite narrators. She always does a fantastic job, is an outstanding voice actor, and has an amazing repertoire of voices. I think I would have rated this novel lower except for her terrific job on the audiobook. I give her an A+.