Grady Hendrix does it again with this domestic vampire novel set in the 90's and the same universe as "My Best Friend's Exorcism." This story is about the lengths a mother will go to to protect her children. I really enjoyed the characters and thought they were well developed. I tore through this book!

4.5 stars
“I wanted to pit Dracula against my Mom, as you’ll see its not a fair fight” Heck yes! With a quote like that my expectations were high. The Southern Book Clubs Guide to Slaying Vampires did not disappoint. I admit I was going into The Southern Book Clubs Guide to Slaying Vampires thinking it was going to be this campy little vampire book reminiscent of Fright Night which there is nothing wrong with that. In this case I am glad I was wrong. Yes, TSBCGSV has its fun moments come on it features a group of middle age women in book club I would be disappointed if it did not. But The Southern Book Clubs was also darker and gorier than I thought. There were some rage moments when the women had their ideas and concerns pushed aside and gaslighted, the author did an amazing job pointing out people’s opinions of women. Let us not forget about the ending, exceptional.
Overall, The Southern Book Clubs Guide to Slaying Vampires is a gripping, intense and fun horror novel. As well as being an excellent vampire book.

The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix The author has a flare for descriptive passages and creating dysfunctional characters, The story is creepy, weird, bloody, gory and so not a book for me, Then the RATS!!! Just could not get past them. A sure hit for those into the vampire genre looking for a quirky twist.

Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for the opportunity to preview the book.

Fabulous and terrifying. I am not a horror fan, so this is probably my one horror book this year and if you're only going to read one, this is the one. Patricia and the rest of the southern ladies are both your everyday women and total superheroes. Wait, you see that too, right? The book kept tricking me into complacency when I would get caught up in the southern women being southern and laugh out loud, and the next minute I would be sorry I read that chapter in a dark room in the middle of the night. Grady Hendrix is a new favorite, but I'll have to wait til next year to read another.

If hanging out with women in a true crime book club during the 90’s sounds fun to you, I recommend reading this book! What a fun escape- I really had a fantastic time with Patricia, Kitty, Slick, Maryellen, and Grace. The true crime book club is the start of close friendships between the very different women and ultimately the beginning of the end of their normal lives. When a mysterious stranger moves in, things get a lot more interesting. I really enjoyed the 90’s nostalgia, the escapism, and the story of undervalued, underestimated women who finally win a round. I will absolutely recommend this book to my library patrons!

When I first started reading this novel I was truly excited, but after about 50 pp I was no longer interested in reading it (there are too many on my TBR list!) However, I WILL recommend it to customers at my library branch because I do recognize its value and know many who would love it. It just wasn't for me.

Let me start by saying I really did enjoy the book and I would recommend it. It’s an easy read that goes quickly and I never felt like I wanted to stop reading despite some of the characters in the book. That gets to what I didn’t care for. The husbands in the book are all garbage, which is the nicest, least profanity laced thing I can say about them. Seriously, they all deserve throat punches. There were times reading the book I thought surely this I set in the 60s not the 90s but no, the husbands are just throwbacks to a worse time. I don't want to give too much of the plot away but I can sympathize with the main character who suspects something terrible is happening but is told by everyone that she’s confusing the true crime books they read in their monthly book club with reality. Of course she’s right, but it takes awhile to convince anyone to help her. Overall, it’s a good summer read.

Another win for Hendrix. The Southern Book Club is fiercely feminist, self-aware satire that also happens to be extremely entertaining. Be wary if you’re triggered by body horror. Though race relations in the south can be a delicate subject for some, Hendrix drives the point home in a way that any fragile white reader can understand—The disproportionate amount of black children going missing without any news coverage versus white children dominating the airwaves is genuinely horrific, and STILL a problem.

This was just the book I needed for this crazy season of life - funny, thoughtful, scary, and heartbreaking. The misogyny of the men in the book got to me at first until I realized that behavior was the point. This group of women had to find their own voice and way to become the heroes of their own story. And boy are they heroes in the end. Loved.

I have read many vampire stories and this one hits the sweet spot between taking itself too seriously and being ridiculously campy. Enjoyable, with just enough history to tell the story but not get bogged down, and just enough humor to recognize and enjoy the fun without taking you over the top.

The characters get away with a lot of exposition in the name of southern hospitality, and not being a southerner myself, I enjoyed the way these book club members took it upon themselves to settle scores, clean each other's houses, nose into their neighbor's business, and keep silent when appropriate.

There is a running theme of husbands/men controlling wives/women throughout the story that was troubling. The moral of the story seems to be that if everyone had listening to the women when they originally spoke up, many of the bad things that occurred over the course of many years wouldn’t have happened. The good old boys club mentality thus plays its own role in the horror of the story as well, as lives are forever changed not just by the vampire.

Yet, it isn’t just the men who test their relationships. Some the women fall out of friendship, fall in line with the men, fall back into friendship, or are otherwise drafted back. The relationships of the women in the original book club rearrange themselves as well as they are tested and drawn into the mystery of the vampire. Each member finds a way to contribute what she can to bring about the end, and the fact that they give so much to each other and their families is just a reminder of the unknown struggles many women go through in the course of a day to save their worlds.

Such a fun read. Perfect pick for my murderino book club next month! Great mystery, suspense, and all around delightful to read.

Not sure if it was because I read an early release, but there were a few moments where I got lost as to where we were and some characters seemed to know things that they hadn't been told. Also, there's a bit of a magical negro character might have been handled a little better.

I didn't not finish this book as it had more horror elements as part of the novel than expected. Despite the subject, the authors writing was easy to follow, built characters with great detail, and created a great deal of suspense for readers to look forward too.

An excellent addition to the library of vampire lore. This book does not pretty up the monsters or the heroines while at the same time paying tribute to the stay at home moms who are watching out for their families. Hendrix skillfully combines vampire lore including the insect like suckers from Guillermo Del Toro, to the old school dusty monsters from Stephen King and Bram Stoker, and sex crazed pretty boys from Charlaine Harris and Laurell K. Hamilton.

I’ve read and enjoyed all of Grady Hendrix’s work, but this one was really something special. From the very beginning of the novel, he brought in characters who were real and relatable. There was humor, family drama, southern etiquette, and the horror element was a very slow build - but once it got there, it was truly horrific. Excellent work; I’ll be recommending it to anyone who will listen.

Hendrix does it again!

I seem to say this a lot about authors I enjoy and from whom I happily anticipate new releases, but I mean it this time! Grady Hendrix writes horror-comedy novels, one of the few types of horror novels I enjoy reading. When I heard he wrote a vampire novel, I just couldn’t wait to pick it up. This was absolutely enjoyable and the women around who he focuses the story are awesome, kick-butt, mothers and wives who know how to take down creatures of the night, thanks in part to the grim titles they read in their book club.

Content/Trigger Warnings: Rape, physical abuse, buried alive, violent deaths/murder. Scenes of detailed gore and dismemberment, blood, and other various creepy crawly things.

I want to think more about this before giving an in-depth review, but for now, I'll give my initial thoughts.

Grady made the women pretty hilarious and also showing that just because they were housewives did not mean they were idle and bored.

Patricia is our MC, and she was a nurse before marrying her husband, she has a moment where she wishes things were just slightly more interesting, like the books they read in their 'non-bookclub' but as they say... 'be careful what you wish for.'

Her family life suddenly pulling at the seams as she tries to figure out what's wrong in their neighbourhood. No one believes her but when she does stumble onto something, it ends almost in disaster.

In this book, victims of a past event were white children that were blamed on a black man who was horrifically buried alive and left to die, and when current events seem too much like the past, the victims are children of Six Mile Road. Unfortunately, they are racially profiled, it's the children of colour disappearing, Patricia tries to help find out what happens, but, she finds her white saviour routine falls flat with horrible consequences.

I do like that she and others were called out for wanting to play the saviour while running at the sign of trouble, and only returning when their own might be at risk. I thought this was a good call out we don't see enough in books/media and Mrs. Greene was the best character of the book for me because of this.

I don't have the knowledge though to comment more on what I've stated above though and so I stop before I spew ignorance.

I enjoyed the creepiness and the gore, it was an intense read that was maybe a bit too long but worth every page. It made my skin crawl and left me wanting to read more by Grady.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for a copy of this in exchange for my honest opinion.

Wow, I almost don't know where to start with this one. I can open by saying two things though. Grady Hendrix knows how to pack a punch but what does he have against dogs?

The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires takes place in the 90's in a suburban neighborhood of Charleston. While it is in no way a sequel or even a companion piece to My Best Friend's Exorcism, it does take place in the same neighborhood. Having read both, it makes me glad I never lived there because I bet there is a hidden burial ground beneath all those homes. Patricia Campbell is our MC and she and her friends have a monthly book club. However, instead of reading the modern classics like some other book clubs, they prefer crime novel and non-fiction about serial killers.

The book club is about the only excitement these women get. The rest of their lives are spent taking care of their houses, their husbands and their children. They don't have a career unless you count being a housewife a full-time job. Which I do but their husbands clearly do not. One day a mysterious man moves into the neighborhood. Soon afterward Patricia is attacked while taking out the garbage and this man's relative ends up biting off a piece of Patricia's ear and then dying. Slowly but surely Patricia begins to suspect that James Harris is more than meets the eye. And she has to rely on her friends and her family to save the neighborhood, as well as a bordering neighborhood, from losing everything.

While this book is clearly a horror novel, Hendrix also infuses some social commentary. Below the horror in this book is a tale about race, feminism and stereotypes. I loved all of the women in this book. Patricia slowly comes into her own as the book progresses. Her friends, while they have their issues, also show character development and by the end of the book, I grew quite attached to them as well. Now the men, I disliked all of them. They took their wives for granted and basically felt their places wer in the home and in the kitchen. And while we pretty much know that James Harris is a horrible monster, I almost felt that Patricia's husband Carter, was almost as bad. At one point in the book, Patricia has been deathly ill after something takes place in the book. Upon her awakening, her husband exclaims in one breath that he was worried and was getting ready to take her to the hospital and in the other was distraught because James Harris was missing and she needed to help him find the man. I also have to mention Patricia's kids. They are both annoying teenagers, as most are, but they are made worse by the fact that they are under vampiric influences.

So needless to say, yes I loved this book. I devoured it and even though there is a scene in which the family dog, Ragtag, almost meets his demise, it was done while protecting his family and his family stepped up and took care of him once the incident was over. So all is forgiven Mr. Hendrix. Except for Max, and well, that's another story completely.

If you are looking for a horror book that can be described as charming as well as gory, then look no further and go read this book now. There's so much more I could say but I'll let you discover the joys of this book for yourself.

Set in the 1990's this novel pits a book club of ladies who read true crime books against a 400-year old vampire. Patrica Campbell's routine life is turned upside down when James Harris arrives in the neighborhood. At first, Patricia, a stay at home mother of two with a busy and often absent doctor husband welcomes the attention of this handsome book-reading man. But strange events begin to occur - Patricia is attacked by an elderly neighbor, a swarm of rats invades her home, and young children are disappearing in the working class section of town. Soon Patricia is asking her book club ladies to help her find the truth, but has she been reading too many true crime books? This is a wonderful novel that will appeal to fans of southern fiction as well as horror. Highly recommended!

WOW!! The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires is my favourite book of 2020 so far, I am already a huge Grady Hendrix fan, I devoured Horrorstör, about a haunted IKEA.
I knew this book was going to be good, the hype was so real!
The middle-aged mum's fighting-evil horror story I never knew I needed.
Scary, Gory, Violent and Vile.

I have to admit that I was very excited to read this book. I am from the South and I love my Southern women representing, but I feel here they were done wrong. It may have been a fair representation of women in the 90's, but not all women. I feel that it took the good and yet also the very worst qualities of Southern women and rolled them into one. The women felt vapid. I felt like it started out strong and I enjoyed it, but then as it went on, I felt like I did not really care about Patricia. She never seemed to grow a backbone until the very end. And the process for how new beings were created just felt wrong in all the worst ways. I feel this will be a book we would buy because of all the hype, but I would not recommend it. Thank you to the author, publisher, and Netgalley in exchange for reading in exchange for an honest review.