I'm declining to post a review because I didn't particularly connect with this book. I think that for me it was just too different from Hendrix's previous books, three of which I have enjoyed.

This book was just infuriating at times. The children. The husbands. The villain that just keeps winning and winning. Had I had the physical book, I probably would have thrown it across the room more than once. Hendrix really makes you feel all the pinned-up pain of these women. As usual, he also has some great, creepy, and just down right nasty imagery for his horror scenes. Over though, I feel like the story should have been more fun, a bit more Evil Dead 2. But that’s probably just my own taste. 3.5 stars. Thanks to NetGalley and Quirk Books for the eARC.

This was a legitimately gruesome horror book. I’m not actually sure where any of the “humor” reviews are coming, since I didn’t think any of it was humorous. It wasn’t funny when the original book group of Southern ladies decided to exclude anyone not measuring up to their standards of a book club; wasn’t funny when their kids dismissed everything their mothers said and when their husbands openly chided them like they were silly little children; wasn’t funny when no one would believe or care about missing children or a criminal white man simply because it’s happening to black children and black cleaning women in a black part of town suffering; wasn’t funny when a man beat his wife for saying a word against him; wasn’t funny when a book group was the only thing these housewives were “allowed” to do; wasn’t funny when their husbands cheated on them, etc etc. Nothing actually funny about any of it. There is ultimately a bit of vindication, but I would have rather seen some much feistier women responding to their terrible husbands throughout and putting their complacent, hateful children in their places and having them realize they should not treat their mother how their father does. More frustrating overall than satisfying.

I have only been on NetGalley for a few months, and I was ecstatic to have this as one of the first books I was approved for. But then I started psyching myself out. It sounded so freaking good. What if it actually wasn't? What if the use of "Fried Green Tomatoes and Steel Magnolias meets Dracula" was a ploy to get sad saps like me in and then pull the rug out from under me? What if the book club idea sucked? What if the vampire was a wimpy loser? I have avoided vampire books for several years now because they hardly ever live up to my expectations and this one sounded so perfect I just kept putting it off because I just really didn't want it to suck (pun intended). On the bright side, it was absolutely incredible.

I expected violence and gore, but I didn't expect truly how dark this was going to be. There was the expected but there were also discussions about gender dynamics, emotional abuse, sexual assault, gaslighting, racial disparities in police response time, and so many other heavy topics. And Hendrix did it so beautifully. The entire time I was chef's kissing the writing while simultaneously WANTING TO BURN DOWN THE WHOLE ESTABLISHMENT.

There are so many messed up things that happen in this book. Like tread lightly. There are quite a few trigger warnings I would have liked to know about going into it, to be honest. If anyone is curious, I personally updated this book's page on doesthedogdie.com to reflect the triggers and I tried to be as avoidant of spoilers as possible.

I think I could write a whole essay about my love for every single woman in this book, even when their actions upset me. I could also write a whole other follow up on how bad every male character sucks and how far I want to dropkick them into tomorrow. I have SO MANY thoughts and emotions about this book. Ugh. Just. Yeah.

Sincere thanks to the publisher, the author, and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this delightful book in exchange for an honest review.

Grady Hendrix is a name synonymous with modern horror. Rising to pop culture fame with the now infamous Paperbacks From Hell and accompanying newsletter. His unique style of storytelling is consistently the perfect mix of comedy, mounting tension, and gore. ‘The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires’ will resonate with long time Hendrix fans and also serve as a paramount first reading experience for others. Pour yourself a glass of chilled white wine, send the kids to bed early, and settle in with this one because this book is a mood.

From the first page I had Mary Chapin Carpenter’s ‘He Thinks He’ll Keep Her’ playing in my head when we meet Patricia Campbell in the fall of 1988. The heroine of our story, Patricia, is a former nurse turned housewife after marrying her psychiatrist husband. Hendrix throws us right into a montage of work/life balance insanity as we see Patricia take care of everyone in her life; her husband, their two kids, the dog, and her elderly mother in law. She even tries to make a little time for herself with a “not quite” book club made up of some of the other neighborhood ladies. Over the next few years we see Patricia and her book club do a deep dive into true crime thrillers and discuss them late into the evenings over wine. It’s wonderful. We get to know Patricia, Kitty, Slick, Grace, and Maryellen. They are inspiring, real, and relatable. We learn about their families and their unique dynamics. We get comfortable…and then we begin to see the cracks.

The first act of this book erupts like a time capsule. You can smell the AquaNet, hear the opening theme from Unsolved Mysteries, feel the humidity, taste the morning coffee shared at a friend’s kitchen table, and see the hypocrisy of it all. Against a late ‘80s and early ‘90s backdrop of cul-de-sac living, gated communities, and country club cocktail parties where charm and proper manners are as potent social currency as the right shade of lipstick and your husband’s occupation, there is a darkness. In this world tinted Carolina haint blue, Hendrix drips rot and blood, setting down the ley line of the plot. As these very Southern women casually discuss serial killers and gruesome murders, a parasite begins to infiltrate their community.

Balancing several themes that circle around Gothic horror, toxic masculinity, and entrapment, Hendrix offers us a unique vampire story that is about the ‘idea’ of a vampire. Playing once again with stereotypes, the predatory and charming vampire becomes an alien terror. Instead of being the outsider blamed for the increasing problems of a community and the ill-luck of stalwart characters, Hendrix’s nightmarish creature cleverly seduces and nests.

The second act is merciless. Hendrix takes a hard look at our cultural perceptions of housewives. He weighs our preconceived notions about and our prejudices against them. Readers will start to realize that perhaps a vampiric threat is not the scariest thing that could befall these women who quickly begin to feel isolated and as the tension grows. Navigating social niceties and familial obligations this cadre of women emerge as our protectors against a multi-faceted evil in an explosive final act that left me breathless. I wish I was in a book club just so I could gush about this one ad nauseum with you. ‘The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires’ might just be Hendrix’s best one yet.

There are several adjectives I could use to describe this book, but I think the only verb would be BUY! Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC!

It's the 90s. Patricia Campbell lives in the suburbs and is in a book club. She has a family that she loves but only sometimes likes. Life is stable and boring. And then...

I loved this book. I loved everything about this book, the story, the dialogue, the way that blood runs cold in people's veins, the funny parts, the scary parts, and especially the characters. I've enjoyed the other Grady Hendrix books that I've read, but none of those grabbed me by the throat the way The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires did. I struggle to imagine that I will thoroughly love another book this year, like I love this book. I read this 400 pager in about 36 hours because I could not put it down. I read it at night, at meals, and at work (shhh).

I won't describe the plot because the title and the back cover copy give away plenty of information, but I can tell you that if you like horror, even a little, you're going to want to own this book. I give this my highest recommendation and a firm spot in my all-time favorite books.

Well what a way to start my pandemic reading! This is awesome on so many levels. Think Steel Magnolias but with vampires. A group of moms in the early 90s in Charleston SC read gory true crime books for their bookclub and so Patricia is the first to meet the new stranger in town she notices some irregularities in his behavior; but polite southern women don’t comment on such...or do they? What can a group of moms do against a their husbands, their children, talk
In the neighborhood, and a real monster in their midst?

Housewives vs Dracula? I’d bet on those women any day.

Beware of description of body horror!!

Grisly and uncomfortable at times, but ultimately entertaining. Hendrix captures the "book club" experience with wacky characters, rather subversive tropes, and insight into the how society belittles what women know and how they know it.

Being a Southerner I love all books based in the South. This is like Fried Green Tomatoes or Steel Magnolias with a vampire twist. Loved it!

Damnit Grady! Why must you play with my emotions?!?
I am such a huge fan of Grady Hendrix, My Best Friend’s Exorcism being one of my favorite books of all time, so there was a lot of pressure on this book going in. Right off the bat it was a fun start: a group of southern housewives are SO BORED with their bland book club reads so they decide to start reading something a bit more exciting...true crime! I related to these women a lot in the sense that they had a passion and genuine love for true crime and all things morbid, they were constantly asking questions and analyzing and I loved them all. There was an unfortunate lull toward the middle and I kind of felt like nothing was happening for a good portion of the book, swaying my rating to 3 stars but once things picked up they didn’t stop! Hendrix definitely put his signature humor and gore into this one which I absolutely loved and he did not disappoint. This book made me laugh, made me PHYSICALLY cringe, got my eyes a little misty and I even added some books to my tbr because of the references! This is definitely something you guys should pick as soon as it’s released!
4 stars for me!

Thank you @quirkbooks and @jenmurfee for my free copy. Also, shoutout to the @night_worms for the best book party ever! #mybookclubslaysvampires #bookreview

THE SOUTHERN BOOK CLUB’S GUIDE TO SLAYING VAMPIRES is pure gold. I have no idea how to explain Grady Hendrix’s writing style because it has a little bit of everything, with horror, humor, mystery, gore, and well developed characters. There’s a book club with a plethora of true crime. One of the characters’ names is Kitty. There is a vampire!!! And that’s just the beginning. I was laughing out loud within the first chapter.

Set in the late 80s early 90s, Patricia is married to a doctor, has kids, and she loves her family, but is bored out of her mind. Being a homemaker is a difficult but thankless job and Patricia rarely gets any stimulating adult conversation. She barely makes it to the neighborhood book club which ends up being a bore. Luckily, there are some cool ladies in the mix that suggest starting a true crime, not so book club, book club. I’m not going to go any further but things stay humorous, get unsettling, make you gasp, get gory, make you uncomfortable, and warm your heart.

I have read and LOVED every one of Hendrix’s books! Maybe it’s his nod to pop culture? I mean nobody writes the 80s and 90s era so well. Or maybe it’s because of his incredible talent to fuse horror and satire so perfectly? Could it be his well-developed characters that you swear you’ve made friends with? Or maybe, it’s because I can relate to his stories in some way and that he’s a damn clever writer? I say it’s all of the above. This is a bloody vampire horror story, but it’s also a sweet story about a group of Southern ladies that read true crime.

I love THE SOUTHERN BOOK CLUB’S GUIDE TO SLAYING VAMPIRES with my whole heart. All there is left to say is READ IT. ★★★★★

I’m not sure what’s scarier in Grady Hendrix’s The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires. On the one hand, the creature who terrorizes Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, is legitimately terrifying. On the other, the fact that no one listens to protagonist Patricia might be even more frightening. Vampires aren’t real, but disbelieving someone and gaslighting them absolutely exist. The ladies of the titular book club essentially have two evils to battle.

After a disastrous attempt to join a more rigorous book club that requires readers to do research on top of reading the book, Patricia joins a splinter book club that reads pretty much nothing but true crime in the early 1990s. The group become the first girl friends Patricia has had. Sadly, the group gets started near the same time that James Harris arrives in Mt. Pleasant. While the ladies read classic true crime, children start to go missing in the African American neighborhood of the town and Patricia is viciously attacked by an elderly neighbor. I was not expecting the little old lady to bite Patricia’s earlobe clean off. This act of violence is just a warm-up for the terror that follows.

Patricia, possibly under the influence of all that true crime, starts to draw conclusions from some disturbing deaths, disappearances of children, and her mother-in-law’s insistence that James is the man that swindled her father back in the 1930s. It’s incredible. Worse, it’s unbelievable to everyone Patricia tries to tell about what she thinks. The husbands of the club members do their best to shut down everything Patricia says. It seems that James has become the men’s best friend and business partner.

After a three year jump in time, Patricia seems to have been tamed by Prozac and social pressure. I felt so much for her. Patricia only wants to do the right thing, but no one will listen to her. The tension starts to ratchet up as James becomes bolder in his acts of violence. I raced through the last third of the book because I just hand to know if Patricia would be able to save her children, if she would be able to get someone on her side, and if she would be able to face her fears to commit her own act of righteous violence.

The title and my experience with books featuring vampires and southern women had me expecting something lighter and fluffier. Instead, I got an electrically terrifying novel that was brilliantly written. The pacing is absolutely perfect and Hendrix’s characterization of women trapped by social conventions had me squirming. I am definitely going to recommend this book to my friends who like scary books.

The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix
As a fan of My Best Friend’s Exorcism, I was excited to see that The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires is set in the same world. Grady Hendrix does not disappoint! This isn’t a cozy, ladies who lunch book club pretending to be Buffy. Straight-up horror with intensely disturbing images and a high creep out factor.

I look forward to Grady Hendrix's new material much like a long overdue vacation, or winning some ungodly sum of money -- a lot, to say the least! His work continues to get better and better with each release, and that has to be a difficult feat, as it's so damn good already! This had moments where I felt a Jack Ketchum "Girl Next Door" vibe, of the real horrors that go on behind closed doors in polite society. Also, much like Jonathan Janz in "Dust Devils" and Glenn Rolfe in the forthcoming, "Until Summer Comes Around" gives readers a refreshing, original, atypical take on a classic monster. At times funny, and at others, downright scary & stressful, this will be in my "best of" list for 2020.

Beginning with a normal description of the affluent life of a bored southern housewife. Just before you think it is another dysfunctional family story, Patricia Campbell one of our five book club members and main character, is attacked by an elderly neighbor while putting out the garbage one night.. The elderly neighbor is put in the hospital as is Patricia. Then a handsome relative of the neighbor (James Harris) comes to stay at the house and help out. Patricia being the lovely southern lady she is feels she should take over a casserole and help out if possible. Patricia befriends James Harris and the book is kicked up to a higher speed.
My favorite Grady Hendrix book so fa. It not only has some surprises but also looks back to some of the classic vampire stories. Patricia Campbell the main character was very real to me as well as the book club she was in. The southern charm of the ladies in the book club rang true if not also a bit funny at times.

dang i don't even know what to say. of the ones i've read (Horrorstor is on hold at the library), i have yet to be disappointed by a grady hendrix novel. even when i can't stand the male characters so much i want to claw my eyes out. even when i get so frustrated with the events i feel hopeless and have no idea how the protagonists are going to get out of this. it's obviously because i care, and he's so good about making me care.

hendrix books all have a tongue-in-cheek, retro vibe that doesn't disrespect or mock the characters or their situation. his books are fun with alternating dark and touching moments. this one is no exception. loved it.

I've been a Grady Hendrix fan since Horrorstör, and I really enjoyed this new horror adventure. The story takes place in Charleston, SC in the 1990s, and centers around a housewife who suspects her charismatic new neighbor has caused the deaths of several children in the area. If you like a classic good versus evil story with some southern colloquialisms and female liberation thrown in, this is the book for you. My only complaint about this book is that it sometimes feels a little too similar to Hendrix's 2016 novel My Best Friend's Exorcism. Both focus heavily on female friendships; both are set in South Carolina in the late 20th century; both pit a female hero against a supernatural antagonist. It's still a really fun and suspenseful thriller, even if it does induce some déjà vu. I can't wait to see what Hendrix brings to the horror-genre next.

The first fiction entry in this list, The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires sees a group of ’90s housewives pitted against an evil far more terrifying and insidious than anything they have read about in their monthly book club. Trigger warnings apply for rape, domestic abuse, drug abuse, and suicide.

Patricia is a wife and mother living in ’90s suburbia with a distant husband, increasingly sullen children, and the unwelcome responsibility of caring for her aging mother-in-law. She and her friends are all members of their local book club, which focuses on true crime and horror novels. When a new neighbor, James Harris, moves in, Patricia initially extends traditional southern hospitality, but she quickly grows suspicious of his motives as bizarre occurrences begin to happen and children in a nearby poor, black community start to disappear. When Patricia witnesses James attacking a young girl, she has to speak out, but her fears are laughed away by the men of the community who believe they know what’s best and she is quickly dismissed as mad. Eventually, Patricia must decide whether to stay silent and allow evil to flourish or speak out and risk everything.

In the introduction to this book, author Grady Hendrix states that he “wanted to pit a man freed from all responsibilities but his appetites against women whose lives are shaped by their endless responsibilities. [He] wanted to pit Dracula against [his] mom.” That idea of men having freedom while women are tied down is nothing new. How often have we seen the trope of the husband returning home to immediately crash onto the couch with a beer and the TV on while his wife runs around making dinner, cleaning up, and helping with homework? Here, though, it becomes something even more sinister as James leverages his freedom, and that of the men around him, to his advantage, knowing that the women who have figured out his secret are trapped by social niceties and a desperate desire not to rock the boat and risk their families and their social standing. In the end, though, it ends up being those very restrictions and their skills as “good wives and mothers” that help the women fight back.

Housewives are rarely the focus of books like this, seen as having too many responsibilities to spend our days fighting evil or having adventures, so it’s refreshing—if terrifying—to read a book where I strongly recognised myself as I am today in the main character. That being said, this was one of the hardest books I have read in a long time, to the extent that I had to ban myself from reading it before bed. Not only were the horror scenes truly horrific (anyone with a fear of rats may want to skip this one) but the reaction of the husbands was infuriating in their smug dismissal of their silly wives and their overactive imaginations, and I frequently found myself wanting to scream for reasons other than fear.

Grady Hendrix is rapidly becoming one of my favorite authors, and The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires is another excellent example of his unique and disturbing take on the world.

There were some moments early on when I thought that this would be the prefect mix of humor and horror (a <i>Jude the Obscure</i> joke was the clue) but then, well... it didn't quite live up to that promise. It's not even really Southern Gothic horror, and it's not quite a vampire slaying group, although it does try to do both. The book group that Kitty. Patty, Grace, Maryellen and Slick form is tight knit and supportive, while their husbands are sexists Southerners who embrace golf and the Citadel, and a man's word and honor are paramount. Of course the newbie in the neighborhood , James, is going to help create even tighter bonds between the women and tighter bonds between the men... but you just know that something isn't Quite Right. There are also race issues, with the Book Club trying to help Patty do something about the black children disappearing from her cleaner's neighborhood and, well, it doesn't quite go the way it's supposed to.

The characters are very much people of their time (the 1980s) so attitudes and responses reflect that era. Anyone wanting different, more modern, versions, will be disappointed.

eARC provided by publisher.