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A review by stories_of_the_soul27
The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.0
As a thriller I did enjoy this book! The anticipation was real and the threat loomed so large and stakes got so high that I was glued to the book for quite a while. I did quite like the last 10% of the book.
But when you portray a book as a feminist and centre it around a group of women during the 90s, then I would damn sure get into the nitty gritty of it and judge it based on it’s characters, settings and overall message and not simply whether it was thrilling enough for me.
- [1] Gore : loved it. It was so disgusting to read about and that’s why I loved it. Except the r@pe and the pedophile aspects of it
- [2] Female friendships : started strong but fizzled out. Patricia’s concerns were not taken seriously by her friends and while they did stand together when facing their husbands, it wasn’t much of a proof of friendship. Seeing these 5 women together reminded me of Desperate Housewives where none of the women were perfect and many times they were unaware of the events going in the lives of the other girls but when faced with a common adversity they came together and so I must say the friendship in this book was paltry compared to how strong female friendships could be. None of them, except one, came to visit Patricia in the hospital and all were quite oblivious to what the others are going through in their lives. One of them was dying and it took so long for them to come visit her.
- [3] The women were quick to blame each other whenever someone didn’t want to take a stand or follow in their direction. It made me laugh because how could you be judging someone who has an equal standing and almost similar lifestyle to yours? I hated the blame game and the lack of trying to understand the differing perspectives.
- [4] Racism : the vampire was attacking only the black people and was also targeting them as the perpetrators of the heinous crimes - I’d say it as a portrayal of how during those times a villainous person would choose only black or coloured people as victims because the Police were insensitive towards their problems and newspapers were less likely to report the incidents. But none of the characters acknowledged this problem. They themselves were pretty racist too seeing that all of them were reluctant to accompany her to Mrs. Greene’s house. Their refusal to believe Patricia was all because it was a white man she was accusing of committing the crimes. Even towards the end they said they were embarrassed and hence didn’t take any action but we all know that y’all were just being racists!
- [5] The real villains were the husbands. Chapter 21 made me want to throw something at those 5 men. Carter was such a piece of shit. He thinks he knows people just because he’s a psychiatrist?! He carefully orchestrated events so that his own children can undermine and disregard their own mother! To do that to your wife is such a cruel thing! And every time Korey or Blue behaved in unruly way, he was so quick to blame Patricia for it. That was his only concern - how to pin blame on his wife. Leland is another waste of oxygen! He said he wouldn’t know what he would do without Slick but the moment she gets diagnosed with a disease having no name, all he starts caring about is his reputation. Then comes Bennett - the wife beater asshole. None of the husbands provided a space where their wives could share their troubles with them. And so my point is what was the point of showing so much sexism and misogyny if you aren’t going to do anything with it in the book?
- [6] You can really tell that the book has been written by a man. When it came to the point that the only way they could get close to James Harris is by letting Patricia pretend that she wants him, is when I put up my hands and go fuck off. And only a man thinks that writing men as sexist, misogynistic piece of shits is the only way to write a book centred on women empowerment. In that way you don’t have to write strong female characters, you just have to make the men look bad enough. And so that was the point of having so many men practicing sexism daily towards the women in their lives so that we can pity the women in this book.
I could have been just okay with being thrilled by the horror & suspense parts of this book, without going so deep. But it left a bitter aftertaste in my mouth.
But when you portray a book as a feminist and centre it around a group of women during the 90s, then I would damn sure get into the nitty gritty of it and judge it based on it’s characters, settings and overall message and not simply whether it was thrilling enough for me.
- [1] Gore : loved it. It was so disgusting to read about and that’s why I loved it. Except the r@pe and the pedophile aspects of it
- [2] Female friendships : started strong but fizzled out. Patricia’s concerns were not taken seriously by her friends and while they did stand together when facing their husbands, it wasn’t much of a proof of friendship. Seeing these 5 women together reminded me of Desperate Housewives where none of the women were perfect and many times they were unaware of the events going in the lives of the other girls but when faced with a common adversity they came together and so I must say the friendship in this book was paltry compared to how strong female friendships could be. None of them, except one, came to visit Patricia in the hospital and all were quite oblivious to what the others are going through in their lives. One of them was dying and it took so long for them to come visit her.
- [3] The women were quick to blame each other whenever someone didn’t want to take a stand or follow in their direction. It made me laugh because how could you be judging someone who has an equal standing and almost similar lifestyle to yours? I hated the blame game and the lack of trying to understand the differing perspectives.
- [4] Racism : the vampire was attacking only the black people and was also targeting them as the perpetrators of the heinous crimes - I’d say it as a portrayal of how during those times a villainous person would choose only black or coloured people as victims because the Police were insensitive towards their problems and newspapers were less likely to report the incidents. But none of the characters acknowledged this problem. They themselves were pretty racist too seeing that all of them were reluctant to accompany her to Mrs. Greene’s house. Their refusal to believe Patricia was all because it was a white man she was accusing of committing the crimes. Even towards the end they said they were embarrassed and hence didn’t take any action but we all know that y’all were just being racists!
- [5] The real villains were the husbands. Chapter 21 made me want to throw something at those 5 men. Carter was such a piece of shit. He thinks he knows people just because he’s a psychiatrist?! He carefully orchestrated events so that his own children can undermine and disregard their own mother! To do that to your wife is such a cruel thing! And every time Korey or Blue behaved in unruly way, he was so quick to blame Patricia for it. That was his only concern - how to pin blame on his wife. Leland is another waste of oxygen! He said he wouldn’t know what he would do without Slick but the moment she gets diagnosed with a disease having no name, all he starts caring about is his reputation. Then comes Bennett - the wife beater asshole. None of the husbands provided a space where their wives could share their troubles with them. And so my point is what was the point of showing so much sexism and misogyny if you aren’t going to do anything with it in the book?
- [6] You can really tell that the book has been written by a man. When it came to the point that the only way they could get close to James Harris is by letting Patricia pretend that she wants him, is when I put up my hands and go fuck off. And only a man thinks that writing men as sexist, misogynistic piece of shits is the only way to write a book centred on women empowerment. In that way you don’t have to write strong female characters, you just have to make the men look bad enough. And so that was the point of having so many men practicing sexism daily towards the women in their lives so that we can pity the women in this book.
I could have been just okay with being thrilled by the horror & suspense parts of this book, without going so deep. But it left a bitter aftertaste in my mouth.