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.

I was excited to read this book and I wasn't disappointed! It was a hilariously scary read that made me cringe at times and then burst out laughing. The story is based in Charleston and revolves around Patricia and her book club friends. They are sent on a crazy journey when a interesting man comes to town that tests their friendships and families to prove their crazy beliefs. I was surprised at how gory it was, which might bother some, but it made the story very interesting to me. It was a quick read and I look forward to reading more titles from Grady Hendrix.

I was pretty excited about this book based on the synopsis, but unfortunately it didn't deliver. I was expecting a fun combination of Sookie Stackhouse and Stephanie Plum - something quick paced with bits of snark and empowered women. The vampire storyline was slow and underdeveloped, and the sexism experienced by the women characters lacked nuance in its overt ridiculousness. For me, this was a failed attempt at a man trying to write how women experience the patriarchy.

This was a fun one, although I did get upset for the main character several times throughout the book. Patricia is a housewife living in Mt. Pleasant, SC in the late 1980s-1990s. The book spans over 10 years but starts with her joining a book club where they read true crime and horror novels. A new neighbor James moves in down the street and after several very strange events, Patricia becomes convinced he is a vampire. Unfortunately, no one will help her and her husband and his friends are just awful, blaming the books she reads for this crazy idea. That’s all I’ll say on the plot because I don’t want to spoil it too much. One of the reasons I enjoyed reading this is because I used to live in Mt. Pleasant and it was cool when the different street and neighborhood names that I remember were mentioned. This is not a book I would normally pick up but it is getting a lot of buzz right now so I decided to check it out, and I’m glad I did… It was a quick, stimulating read.

Okay, I love basically everything about this book. It's a fantastic balance between quirky fun and creepy. I'm pretty sure I found myself laughing and cringing in equal parts. I'm usually not squeamish but the part with the rats and the part with the cockroach both really got to me. Well done. I 100% appreciate the fact that the dog makes it through and gets a fairly happy ending though. I extra love the fact that even though a vampire is nominally the big bad, the thing that Patricia and the other women kept coming up against the most was society and how it's stacked in certain people's favor. The vampire really gets most of his power from how society is set up and social norms are enforced.

What happens when you "pit Dracula against a mom"? This book happens. And it is amazing. I absolutely loved it, couldn't put it down, and cherished the friendships represented within the pages. I can't wait to tell everybody I know about this book.

At first blush, I thought that this book was going to be Hendrix’s best yet. As I read further, however, I found myself looking down at the percentage marker on my Kindle and wondering where the vampires were. How had I gotten this far through the story without anything actually happening? That turned out to be most of the book. There are some genuinely funny bits of dialogue in this novel and I loved the interactions between the women. Whenever the husbands or the children barge in, the story starts to get muddled. I actually wonder if this narrative would have been better served by alternating perspectives between Patricia, her friend Slick, and James Harris. At any rate, as much as I enjoyed the characters, I wanted more actual story. At times, the insertion of lurking evil in a very sleepy setting reminded me of the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie. I wanted more of that.

Once I’m back in the library, I would seriously hesitate to recommend this book to fans of horror and of vampire novels. At least in our library, our readers of those genres can tend toward the more purist side of the spectrum. There is really not a lot of vampire stuff in this book. A lot of the times I laughed or felt really drawn into the story were the moments that dwelled more on the true crime books and how people thought Patricia’s imagination had just run away with her. There is some good stuff here about tropes on women as true crime consumers and on the tendency for women’s instincts to get brushed off as hysteria. There is not a lot of horror, despite someone’s earlobe getting bitten off in the first act.

Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

I LOVED My Best Friend’s Exorcism, and I was a little worried that I wouldn’t enjoy this one as much, as I am not all that interested in books about vampires. To my happy surprise, though, I enjoyed this one nearly as much as Exorcism. Grady Hendrix could very easily be the next Stephen King if he just pumped those books out a little faster ;)

A group of housewives meet regularly to discuss true crime books. When a stranger appears in the neighborhood and strange and horrific things start happening, our main character Patricia suspects something paranormal might be going on and tries to figure it out to keep neighborhood children safe. The vampire-related stuff was scary and fun to read, not over the top and silly like I was worried about. Grady is especially great at writing gross-out scenes - that cockroach in the ear, blegh! - without it seeming gratuitous. I felt a little nauseous for a good twenty minutes after finishing this book (I read it all in one sitting), but it was worth it. I also thought he did a great job writing those awful, gaslighting men. I have met men like those husbands before, and his descriptions and dialogue were spot on. I admired Patricia’s determination in the face of such a condescending and manipulative husband. Ugh. Would recommend this to anyone who loves horror and isn’t too squeamish.

I must admit the idea that this book is a mix of Steel Magnolias meets Dracula made me wary to read it, but the horror pull was too great. Before I say what I think, I will just give a quick overview it's the American South, it's the 1990's and a group of mothers have been brought together by their love of books.....true crime books in particular, so much so that they set up a bookclub. However, when a stranger appears in town their friendship is tested when one of their group becomes convinced that this man is not who he says he is, in fact he's more of a monster.

The first few chapter of this book were far too twee for me, I contemplated giving up as I really wasn't enjoying reading about these women's lives, however when the pace lifts up with the first hint of horror I thought great here we go, and this is how the plot works for the rest of the book........twee.....horror.......twee..............horror. I don't know if it was because I didn't connect with the characters or if it was a bit too cliched so I found it a bit frustrating however when the horror hits it really works. I probably would give it a 3 and a half

If Desperate Housewives and True Blood were to give birth to a book, The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires would be it. Atmospheric and creepy (a few truly gross out scenes) but with some sly humor thrown in the mix.

Thank you for the chance to read and review this title. I’ll be posting my review to my accounts on 4/24/20. I love cover of this book and the synopsis grabbed my attention right away. This book is like a pot luck...it brings a lot of different dishes to the table. There is nostalgia, humor, suspense, horror, domestic drama, social issues, and more. Unfortunately, it missed the mark for me. It was a slow burn and then it got weird.

I loved the first 20% of the book. It was unique, a little hokey, and made me chuckle. Then it started going downhill. There is a lot of Nancy-Drew-Southern-Housewife time and it started to feel like Hendrix was beating around the bush. I was ready to get to the point. Then it got worse. I felt like I was reading a housewife journal with horror elements just plopped here and there. It was random and weird and I was not a fan. I can do scary and gory, but this weird semi-sexual preying on children and rape is not my brand of horror. I was never scared or spooked; I just felt uncomfortable. The book will make you feel strong emotions, but I was not a fan.

I gave this book a lot of side eye. 10/10 on the HB side eye scale. I’d say read it at your own risk. 2/10 ⭐️

Grady Hendrix somehow manages to write in a new voice for each of his titles. Southern Book Club’s Guide gives a rare opportunity to see into the minds and lives of The Southern Housewife, garnering sympathy and appreciation for a perhaps otherwise looked down on type of woman and character. Through their strength and backbone and sheer willpower, these women forge a bond we can only hope to achieve in realize, albeit through cheerier circumstances than theirs.
A unique viewpoint, not just on housewives but vampires, motherhood, friendship and community, I couldn’t put this book down.

HOW IS THIS BOOK SO GOOD??! Horror with a twist and infinitely readable. I loved every page. Can’t wait to share!

Thank you NetGalley for the free copy in exchange for an honest review!
Rating: 3.5/5 stars.

Let me start this review off by saying...I absolutely love vampires. Especially when they're on the darker, more gruesome side. It's the classic portrayal, and I'm a sucker for it. Pun intended.

I have mixed feelings about this story, though.I think I may have held my expectations a little too high. While the premise is awesome, I wasn't fully engaged in the story. The first half was fast and entertaining build-up that held my attention. The second half of the book was a little lackluster for me, and I wasn't the biggest fan of the characters, although I felt bad for them at times. My rating definitely would've bumped up higher if I enjoyed them more, but that's a personal preference!

With that being said, this is a good horror novel to dip your toes into. It's gruesome, a little weird and sexy at times, sucks you in with suspense, and is an entertaining read. I definitely recommend this book if you love vampires as much as I do!

READ THIS BOOK. I’ve never literally felt my heart pounding in the middle of reading a novel. Seriously, this is a must read. Full of humor, horror, and a dash of sweet Southern charm, I couldn’t get enough. Finished it in less than 12 hours because I could not consume it fast enough!

I had never heard of this author until The Bloggess Jenny Lawson made it her book of the month for the Nowhere Book Store book club.
Oh.
My.
Gosh.

Grady's publisher and agent need to send Jenny a massive thank you because without her championing this book, I never would have given it a look.
On the surface, this book seems like such a contradiction on paper - pampered and wealthy Southern women, a book club, set in the '80's, a VAMPIRE???, but this magical mixture works so well!!
The characters were so well written that I swear I could hear their voices. The evolution of them made you want to stand up and cheer for them.
I will wholeheartedly recommend this to my discerning readers!