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

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Oh wow! This book was the surprise of the year.

Yup, I like vampires, but this one is a very different sparkly vampire kinda book. It is a thriller and as far as I'm concerned this is my second? So yeah, I'm not much into mistery thrillers, but this one I really, really liked it. Also, there is a lot of drama around Hendrix and his books, this one specially, I'll get into that later, but of course being the sickish human that I am, despite every complaint, I read it.

All right, let’s start. The premise of the book is that its a mix between Dracula, Fried Green Tomatoes and Steel Magnolias… IDK. It reminded me a lot to the “fang banggers” from the True Blood series and all of its southern vibes, religious fans and bored housewives.

I will not say it is an easy book to read. Sometimes I had to get back a phew paragraphs to verify if I read what I read. Mainly because Hendrix wrote this sort of... How to explain? Like he tells you something about a character, but then next chapter it did not happen. JAJAJA, so I was like.. h/o, he totally said something different the previous chapter. So yeah, I remember like the first pages, Hendrix talking about who later was the main character, how she was getting ready to die, like on that exact first chapter, but like she does not. LOL. Perhaps they were analogies or ways to keep the interest. Who knows?

So this is about a group of five southern ladies, wives of course. That decide to start a book club to cope with their monotonous lifes and marriages. The story comes to life in the 90’s. You knoe how it was back then. A lot of female repression, a lot and lots of racism issues. That’s how we met Patricia, one of the five members of the society of Charleston. Giving up his career as a nurse, married to the most horrible and moronic husband I’ve ever read and with two desperate kids.

She finds in this club a way to get herself disconnected from her bullshitty life. and of course she finds comfort and help from all the other women members. The books that they read are some sort of an encouragment. So after one night from the book club, she is attacked by a neighbor. I'm not getting into details, because I'l think it will spoil the magic of the book.

But yeah, this attack sets into motion the whole plot of the book, when she mets a charming man called James Harris, nephew from the neighbor's attacker. Of course at the beginning Patricia, and then her husband, kids, book club members and their husbands are mesmerized by James. But then some kids from the poor vicinities start going missing, and Patricia begins suspecting that this is the work of no other than James. Of course if I tell you how she manages to figure this out, it will be a SPOILER.

This is of course a vampire novella, so there is some of the lore that we all know. By this I mean that when Patricia thinks James is the perpetrator of the missing kids , she has already invited him into her house. Definitely this does not help the situation. So James finds a way to take advantage of the invitation to not only get into her life.

So with all the knowledge aquired from the book club and the books they read. She is gonna try to fight this "being", and try of course to save her life and the ones around her.

Promise, you’’l find yourself dealing with a lot of what is 90’s structures of marriage. Be yourself prepared with desperation and anger of how husbands deal with all information Patricia shares regarding her beliefs on Mr. Harris.

And perhaps this is were all the hate and complaints come to the plot. Topics to discuss? Sexism and harmful female representation. But no, I believe faithfully that Hendrix's idea filled with sarcasm and dark humor on TSBCGTSV is the opposite idea of what haters comment. The way he empowers the girls, gives them strength through other characters from the books they read. How they find by themselves everything they need to combat this monster and to stand against their husbands and society beliefs, is what its the most amazing thing of the book.

There is no more empowering female representation than mothers fighting not only for their children but for others. That's what drives Patricia for most of the book, saving not only her son and daughter, but her friend's families also. And not only Patricia, I mean almost at the end there is a scene when the other girls also refer to this statement, that not only your family matters.

Their friendship, the dynamic between the girls from the book, no matter the bloodiness and goriness through the pages, its really amazing, wholesome. Believe me when I say that this book deserves all the hype. It is definitely a must. And I cannot wait to read the rest of Hendrix's books.

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5/5