#source: the southern book clubs guide to slaying vampires

[candyredmusings]

The Southern Book Club's Guide To Slaying Vampires Sentence Starters

Starters based on the book by Grady Hendrix. Change pronouns/names as needed.

CW: NSFT, Religion, Gender Stereotypes, Women Centric, Angst

"Sometimes she craved a little danger. And that was why she had book club.”

“He thinks we’re what we look like on the outside: nice Southern ladies. Let me tell you something…there’s nothing nice about Southern ladies.”

"Let me tell you something…there’s nothing nice about Southern ladies.”

“Why do you pretend what we do is nothing?” 

“Every day, all the chaos and messiness of life happens and every day we clean it all up. Without us, they would just wallow in filth and disorder and nothing of any consequence would ever get done."

"Who taught you to sneer at that? I’ll tell you who. Someone who took their mother for granted.”

“A reader lives many lives. The person who doesn’t read lives but one. But if you’re happy just doing what you’re told and reading what other people think you should read, then don’t let me stop you."

"I just find it sad.”

“We’re a book club. What are we supposed to do? Read him to death? Use strong language?”

"I wanted to pit Dracula against my mom."

“You’d rather get stabbed forty-one times than ruin the curb appeal of your home?”

“One thing I learned from all these books: it pays to be paranoid.”

“I've had three children and some man who's never felt his baby crown is stronger than me? Is tougher than me?”

“Being a teenager isn't a number, it's the age when you stop liking them.”

“I am not sure what the appropriate gesture is to make toward the family of the woman who bit off your ear, but if you felt absolutely compelled, I certainly wouldn’t take food.”

“What had been destroyed made what remained that much more precious. That much more solid. That much more important.”

“The problem with book club these days is too many men. They don’t know how to pick a book to save their lives and they love to listen to themselves talk."

“A no-good man will tell you he's going to change. He'll tell you whatever you want to hear, but you're the fool if you don't believe what you see.”

“You ladies read a strange assortment of books."

"We're a strange assortment of broads." 

“Why is it always 'bitches'? As if men believed that word had some kind of magic power.”

“I think that it shows a remarkable lack of planning on [NAME]'s part. If you’re going to murder your best friend with an axe, you should make sure you know what you’re doing.”

"If you’re going to murder your best friend with an axe, you should make sure you know what you’re doing.”

“If ifs and buts were candy and nuts it would be Christmas every day,”

“The police think all kind of things. Doesn’t necessarily make them true.”

"“My husband has no more consideration for me than a dog."

 "For years I’ve pretended I don’t know where he goes, or who those girls are on the phone, but every time he comes home, I lie there in bed beside my husband, who doesn’t touch me, who doesn’t talk to me, who doesn’t love me, and I pretend I can’t smell some twenty-year-old’s body on him”

"This is where we live, it's where our children live, it's our home. Don't you want to do absolutely everything you can to keep it safe?”

“You said you wanted to live where people watched out for each other, but what’s the good of watching if we’re not going to act?”

“Isn't that how every serial killer gets away with it for so long?"

“It made no sense, but sometimes you did a thing because that was just what you did, not because it was sensible.”

“Nightwalking men always have a hunger on them. They never stop taking and they don't know about enough."

“These false prophets come wandering into town, take hold of your mind, and lead you down a primrose path... People fall for honeyed words.”

“What good is free love if nobody showers?” 

“When I was a kid I didn't take my mom seriously."

"They took the hits so we could skate by obliviously, because that's the deal; as a parent, you endure pain so your children don't have to.”

“Great. Another man with his opinions.”

“We’re not a lynch mob, we’re a book club.”

"Don’t know how I’m going to survive for three weeks."

"[NAME] says we’re safe with his guns, but trust me, I’ve been dove hunting with that man. He can barely hit the sky.”

“Vacuum your curtains. No one ever does it enough. I promise it'll make you feel better.”

“Let's see if we can find from hydrogen peroxide for these bloodstains in the carpet."

“The only people who don’t apologize are psychopaths.”

“At the end of the day, some rich white people lost their money. Some poor black people lost their homes. That's just how it goes.”

“One thing I learned about men: they liked to talk.”

"Five children live in this house and it's eight years before the oldest one moves out. If I don't get some adult conversation tonight I'm going to blow my brains out."

"If I don't get some adult conversation tonight I'm going to blow my brains out."

“We’ve been cleaning up after men our entire lives. This is no different.”

“Some people use literature to understand their lives."

“We want the people we know to be who we think they are, and to stay how we know them.”

“Only boring people get bored.”

"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the ability to face it head-on."

“Once you've washed a man's underwear you realize the sad truth about hidden depths.”

"The true horror is not in the monsters themselves, but in the darkness they awaken within us."

“Don’t worry, [NAME], when we go off, we’ll be fully cocked.”

“[NAME], would you cheat on [NAME] with a stranger who showed up on your doorstep, with no people, and told you he was a vegetarian? You'd want to at least check his driver's license first, wouldn't you?”

“Like most elementary schoolteachers, [NAME] had drunk from the fountain of eternal late middle age."

“Stay here with me in reality. Things are so much better now than they were. Everyone's happy. We're all okay.”

“I need to be morbid."

“You wish that a gang of unwashed hippies would break into your house and murder your family and write death to pigs in human blood on your walls because you don’t want to pack bag lunches anymore?”

“No one likes their children. We love them to death, but we don’t like them.”

"In the darkest of times, it is the light of love that guides us through the shadows."

“If baseball’s a sin, I’m going to Hell."

“You’re on your side. Don’t ever fool yourself about that.”

“You’re both housewives. What else do you do all day?”

"I wish you would go home. I don’t want you here."

“There are more important things than cleaning."

“Another person knows what you taste like now."

"I will never forgive you for this. Never. Never. Never.”

“Stealing the mail is a federal crime.”

“If it had fangs, sharp teeth, or bloody lips on the cover, [NAME] bought it."

"The strength of a woman lies not in her beauty, but in her determination and resilience."

“He left no one behind, no children, no shared memories, no history, no one told stories about him. All he left to mark his passing was pain, and that would fade over time.”

“This is also a book about vampires. They’re that iconic American archetype of the rambling man, wearing denim, wandering from town to town with no past and no ties."

"The bonds of family can be both our greatest strength and our greatest weakness."

“You're going to book club me to death? Not invite me to your next meeting?”

“The problem with that is you would need extremely large pies to fit two children, even minced.”

“Was that what he’d been doing to [NAME]? Did he think he was eating blood?"

“They stabbed [NAME] forty-one times. What do you think that feels like? I mean, I think you feel every single one of them, don’t you?”

“Consider yourself invited."

“She tooted at the table, too, and tried to blame that on my four-year-old.”

"Evil thrives in ignorance. Knowledge is the weapon we must wield against it."

“If she says [NAME] is among the wicked, then it is our Christian duty to smite him."

“I’m against Halloween in all its forms because of the Satanism."

"The thing is you just keep living and it hurts all the time.”

"The South is a place of secrets and silence. We keep our darkest parts hidden away, buried beneath layers of hospitality and charm."

"A woman's love is fierce and unyielding, a force to be reckoned with."

"The true power of friendship lies in the ability to lift one another up, to offer solace and support when the darkness threatens to consume us."

"Darkness lurks in the most unexpected corners."

"In a world that often seeks to silence the voices of women, we must speak louder and fight harder for our truths to be heard."

"Sometimes the biggest monsters hide within the most charming faces."

"Fear can drive us to unimaginable actions, but it is in facing our fears that we find our true strength."

"Love and compassion can soften even the hardest hearts, breaking the chains of hatred and prejudice."

"The true monsters are not always the ones with fangs and claws, but the ones who lurk in plain sight, hiding behind a mask of normalcy."

"The power of a book lies not just in its words, but in the way it inspires us to take action."

[the---hermit]

15|05|2024

It's been a very stressful week so far and today started so bad, but then the day progressively went better and now I am feeling quite relaxed. I couldn't have guessed it this morning, since I ws feeling on the verge of a panic attack. But I took my meds and tried my best to go through the day and it went well. I listened to Monstrous Agonies which provided a lot of comfort as usual and I actually finished it. Class was quite lightheard, for the first time in my life I wasn't stressed about group work, we read our sources and discussed them together in a very chill way that actually felt pleasent. I have not made friends in this class and we don't have many lectures left but never say never for what might happen before the end. After class my friend came to pick me up to drive me home to then play some board games together, she got me focaccia because she thought I might be hungry after my lecture which was the sweetest thing. I am very emotional lately and all the kind gestures of today filled my heart. And I am proud of myself because I am slowly getting more comfortable with talking to people, small steps but I am taking them and it's going well.

📖: The Southern Book Club's Guide To Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix (I started this book about two weeks ago and I read 300+ pages even tho I had pretty busy days, the writing flows so well and a fast paced horror was exectly what I needed right now)

[thelonecalzone]

At long last, here is the official reading list for There'll Be Some Changes Made, and a few recommendations from some of the readers! It's long, so hopefully there's a little something for everyone.

Thank you again to the wonderful readers, both for your encouragement, and for helping me compile this list <3

Recommendations (Named Throughout TBSCM)

The Pearl - John Steinbeck The House in the Cerulean Sea - TJ Klune The Great Alone - Kristin Hannah The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde Upon the Blue Couch - Laurie Kolp In the Dream House - Carmen Maria Machado The Price of Salt - Patricia Highsmith Paradise Rot - Jenny Hval Tipping the Velvet - Sarah Waters Fingersmith - Sarah Waters Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit - Jeanette Winterson Rubyfruit Jungle - Rita Mae Brown Under the Udala Trees - Chinelo Okparanta In at the Deep End - Kate Davies Some Girls Do - Jennifer Dugan This is How You Lose the Time War - Amal El-Mohtar, Max Gladstone  The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo - Taylor Jenkins Reid Lavender House - Lev AC Rosen My Brilliant Friend - Elena Ferrante Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe - Fannie Flagg Straight Jacket Winter - Esther DuQuette and Gilles Poulin-Denis

Source Books (Referenced, but not named)

The Odyssey - Homer The Yellow Wallpaper - Charlotte Perkins Gilman The Glass Menagerie - Tennessee Williams Hamlet - William Shakespeare The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald Come Along with Me - Shirley Jackson (unfinished novel) We Have Always Lived in the Castle - Shirley Jackson A Certain Hunger - Chelsea G. Summers The Poison Garden - AJ Banner

Honorable Mentions:

The Haunting of Hill House - Shirley Jackson Different Class - Joanne Harris The Lost Girls of Ireland (Book 1) - Susanne O’Leary The Girl Next Door - Jack Ketchum The Broken Girls - Simone St. James Dear Fahrenheit 451 - Annie Spence The Canterville Ghost - Oscar Wilde One Last Stop - Casey McQuiston Ash - Malinda Lo Everything Leads to You - Nina LaCour Camp Slaughter - Sergio Gomez The Silence of the Girls - Pat Barker The Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka A Slow Fire Burning - Paula Hawkins The Other Boleyn Girl - Philippa Gregory The Miseducation of Cameron Post - Emily M. Danforth Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

Banished (Under the Coffee Table) Books - DO NOT READ:

Ulysses - James Joyce Everything I Never Told You - Celeste Ng A Little Life - Hanya Yanagihara The Hunting Party - Lucy Foley My Sister’s Keeper - Jodi Picoult The Book Thief - Markus Zusak In the Darkroom - Susan Faludi Marley & Me - John Grogan

Recs from Fellow Readers

Things We Lost in the Fire - Marina Enriquez Her Body and Other Parties - Carmen Maria Machado The Well of Loneliness - Radclyffe Hall Stone Butch Blues - Leslie Feinberg Mouthful of Birds - Samantha Schweblin  The Safety of Objects - A.M. Homes Crush - Richard Siken The Taming of the Shrew - Shakespeare I’ve Got a Time Bomb - Sybil Lamb The Thing Around Your Neck - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Last Night at the Telegraph Club - Malinda Lo Sadie - Courtney Summers The Messy Lives of Book People - Phaedra Patrick The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires - Grady Hendrix The Final Girl Support Group - Grady Hendrix The Lying Lives of Adults - Elena Ferrante They Were Here Before Us - Eric LaRocca The Patience Stone - Atiq Rahimi Agamemnon - Aeschylus Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead - Tom Stoppard Cat's Eye - Margaret Atwood Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz's poetry - (start with "You Foolish Men") The poems of Sappho - (“Anactoria”, the book of fragments, and “Goatherd” specifically)

[mirthandcruelty]

I finished “My Best Friend’s Exorcism” in two sittings. It’s the third Grady Hendrix book that I’ve read, and it’s always so interesting to sit with an author long enough to learn their foibles and fascinations. It feels like Exorcism was his warm up for “The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires”, an almost beat for beat first draft that hones the themes that he feels the need to explore over and over again.

 All of his books are a love letter to 80′s Horror, with his titles and premises sounding like tongue in cheeks spoofs of the various genres that hit their height in that decade, but the actual prose is never as goofy as you’d expect from the cover. In every book, the actual monster is actually just mundane misogyny, the horror coming from the hopelessness you feel when you’re talked over, ignored and dismissed by those in power who are nominally meant to be on your side.

All of his books answer the kinds of questions that could be considered plot holes in the source material he pulls from. “Why didn’t you call the police?” “Why didn’t you just compare notes so everyone is on the same page?” His characters always try to do what’s logical and rational in the face of the inexplicable, and time and again they’re told or shown that the world would rather they die quietly than make a fuss

[kingfishered]

name / alias: elias :)

birthday: 7th june

zodiac sign: gemini

height: 160cm

hobbies: writing, rp, reading, video games, going on walks

favorite color: a nice dark, maybe purplish read

favorite book: tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow by gabrielle zevin (this changes regularly, though)

last show: heartstopper season 2

recent read: the southern book club's guide to slaying vampires by grady henrix

sources of inspiration: the many playlists i have for characters/pairings and fanart are my main two

story behind url: inspired by operation kingfish, from the old mw games :) also i love birds so it was fitting

tagged by: @bl00dysavior

tagging: anyone who sees this!! do it and tag me >:))

[queenvreads]

REVIEW: The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

“We’re a book club,” Maryellen said. “What are we supposed to do? Read him to death? Use strong language?"

4/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Patricia, underappreciated by her kids and husband, quit her nursing job to be a housewife. Despite finding herself unfulfilled and bored, her source of entertainment is her "Blook Club," which predominantly reads true crime. Joined by like-minded Southern women, they pretend to meet for Bible study to avoid judgment. When a handsome stranger moves in, strange things begin to happen.

This is probably my favorite Grady Hendrix book so far. He really knows how to write horror/comedy, making it feel light despite gore and creepiness.

I enjoyed the Southern early '90s setting and the interpretation of a vampire. It was funny, clever, and disturbing. Each chapter was named after a real true crime book, tying in well with the book club theme. The book also gave me True Blood vibes (The Southern Vampire Mysteries aka Sookie Stackhouse), and I am here for it!

I loved the dynamic between the women of the Book Club. They were at odds most of the time but came through when it mattered most. At times, I wished they were more involved with the mystery; instead, Patricia worked alone.

Overall, a really fun, fast-paced book with a bit of everything. It definitely had gruesome scenes (one, in particular, was quite cringe and terrible), but that's the beauty of Grady's works. 😅

[scorbleeo]

Book Review: The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires

by Grady Hendrix

Source: Google Images

Fried Green Tomatoes and Steel Magnolias meet Dracula in this Southern-flavored supernatural thriller set in the '90s about a women's book club that must protect its suburban community from a mysterious and handsome stranger who turns out to be a blood-sucking fiend.

Patricia Campbell had always planned for a big life, but after giving up her career as a nurse to marry an ambitious doctor and become a mother, Patricia's life has never felt smaller. The days are long, her kids are ungrateful, her husband is distant, and her to-do list is never really done. The one thing she has to look forward to is her book club, a group of Charleston mothers united only by their love for true-crime and suspenseful fiction. In these meetings, they're more likely to discuss the FBI's recent siege of Waco as much as the ups and downs of marriage and motherhood.

But when an artistic and sensitive stranger moves into the neighborhood, the book club's meetings turn into speculation about the newcomer. Patricia is initially attracted to him, but when some local children go missing, she starts to suspect the newcomer is involved. She begins her own investigation, assuming that he's a Jeffrey Dahmer or Ted Bundy. What she uncovers is far more terrifying, and soon she--and her book club--are the only people standing between the monster they've invited into their homes and their unsuspecting community.

ISBN: 9781683691457 (2020) | Source: Goodreads

Maybe Slightly Interesting but Most Part Boring

This book confused me so much and I am not referring to the content. I was reading page after page after page because I wanted to find out what was James Harris's deal and what the ending would be like, but oh my goodness, I was bored majority of the time. As a horror thriller, this was disappointing because The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires was neither horrifying nor thrilling...

James was the worst villain in this book, you know who made better villains here? The husbands. At least those useless husbands got a rise out of me, especially Carter and the abusive one whom I have forgotten the name of now.

Okay, so I have a lot of issues with The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires but none of that can beat my hatred for the feeding process. Do the victims need to be completely naked? What was the point of them being completely naked? I don't know Hendrix's works (this was my first) but I seriously hope he does not over-sexualise things that don't need to be over-sexualised in his other books. Seriously, what does being completely naked have to do with the plot of this book?

Someone who shares similar reading preferences to me loved this book so naturally, I expected to love this book. Unfortunately, it was disappointment after disappointment. Now thinking back, I think I only liked one character and that's Mrs Greene. I do not hate the book but there is no love for it either.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

[tarotattwilight]

Episode 54: Throw the Whole Husband Out

Episode 54: Throw the Whole Husband Out

https://open.spotify.com/episode/45WQ7sRy0eIvVhdQb9ZzNK

This week Aryell and Allie get into a recently released book from acclaimed horror author Grady Hendrix! That’s right, pick up your own copy of The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires and rant along with them. Who’s your Boo Daddy?

Goodreads | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository | Books-A-Million

Grady’s Twitter | Inst…

[pokekumo]

“A reader lives many lives,” James Harris said. “The person who doesn’t read lives but one. But if you’re happy just doing what you’re told and reading what other people think you should read, then don’t let me stop you. I just find it sad.”

Source: The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

[juniper-tree]

midyear book freakout

I’m just a little late! Thank you for the tag @pedlimwen, this is fun.

Best Book You’ve Read So Far in 2021? I think it would have to be The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith. But I also loved In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes, and The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix.

Best Sequel You’ve Read So Far in 2021? Not sure if long series installments truly count as sequels, but that’s as close as I tend to come. Unfortunately, I read so many BAD series entries this year (Patricia Cornwall, I am seeking legal restitution from you). The best was probably getting around to Cop Job by Chris Knopf, which is not anywhere near my favorite in the Sam Acquillo Hamptons Mystery series, but still pretty good.

New Release You Haven’t Read Yet, But Want To? I picked up James Ellroy’s new book Widespread Panic as soon as it published, but I haven’t yet cracked it. Forgive me, demon dog... Also Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby.

Most Anticipated Release For Second Half of 2021? It’s got to be The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix, which sounds so corny and gimmicky, but I thought that about Vampires, too, and it was fantastic.

Biggest Disappointment? Lock Every Door by Riley Sager. It would take an enormous amount of convincing from a very trusted source for me to read another Sager book.

Biggest Surprise? The Bone Garden by Tess Gerritsen (my first by her). Though it didn’t quite come together as a whole, I loved reading it.

Favorite New Author? “Favorite” is strong, but I would certainly pick up another book by Jen Williams after reading A Dark and Secret Place.

Newest Fiction Crush? Okay, listen, I’m reading this Nora Roberts western romance from the 80s and the cowboy is very good (but a little bad).

Newest Favorite Character? Definitely Tom Ripley, of the many talents. Hate that I feel so much empathy for him! He is a horrible bastard that I can’t help cheering on! I must know what further depravity he falls into in the rest of the Ripliad.

Book That Made You Cry? A few of Ellroy’s essays, collected in Crime Wave, made me weep, in particular the one about his middle school reunion. And while I don’t think I shed actual tears, reading the potent vision of wretched depression the main characters live through in Charles Willeford’s Pick-Up was like gazing into a dangerous abyss.

Book That Made You Happy? I was having a Sick Day when I got around to the Hendrix Vampires book, and after devouring it in a couple of sittings, I was so much happier than before—despite it being a disgusting horror story, a deeply felt social examination, and also flagrantly indulging a particular insect phobia of mine (so I did have to “look away” from a few parts).

Favorite Book Adaption You Saw This Year? I can’t recall any!

Favorite Review You’ve Written This Year? I began using goodreads again in earnest this year, though I’ve already fallen off in use, due to busy-ness. The reviews I write are mainly for myself, to figure out exactly what it was that worked (or more often didn’t). If I love a book, I generally don’t write anything. If I dislike it, I need to examine why.

Most Beautiful Book You Bought So Far This Year? Sadly most things I bought were totally utilitarian. Even the Chip Kidd design on Widespread Panic is very whatever, in my opinion. There are some beauties on my “wants” list, though.

What Books Do You Need To Read By The End of The Year? I’m looking mournfully at my teetering tbr pile, which doesn’t even include L.A. Noir: The Struggle for the Soul of America's Most Seductive City. I read the first half in 2020 but I really need to finish the rest, for research. 

tagging: @meishuu @muses-circle @paraparadigm @strangefable @maepricot @allenbyseyes

[etansel]

Finished up "The Perfect Child" by Lucinda Berry this morning! Rating: ☆☆☆☆ Pages: 352 TW found on slide three. Overall very good! It's a well written story that is easy to read. If it was for the holidays, this is book I could see myself finishing in a day or so. The tw were hard to describe for this book so I wanted to touch on them a bit here. The book definitely touches on child ab*se with Janie (the child the main characters adopt). However it is never really described presently or in depth. It is a past event. Really how it is shown is through Janie's trauma symptoms. She has a lot of behaviors that are typical to child ab*se victims. This book NEVER actively describes ab*se towards a child. The second tw, I didn't know how to describe it! But it triggers me haha. The past few books I have read had a "husband doesn't trust/believe/support wife" trope. Crazy shits happening and the husband makes the wife feel crazy. Gaslighting, disbelieving, or otherwise just downplaying a situation or thing the wife brings to him with concern. It drove me nuts in "The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires"! ///// What I really love is the author! Lucinda Berry is a trauma psychologist and a leading researching in childhood trauma. You definitely feel that with this book! It is educated and knows the source material well. It's not poorly written or made up. You can tell that Berry put her experience into this book. And because of that it feels like it's written respectfully/tastefully considering the type of content. //// #bookrecommendations #booktok #bookclub #bookreview #bookstagram #bookaddict #horrorbooks #horrorbookstagram #horrorbook #horrorbookclub (at New Jersey) https://www.instagram.com/p/ClaFSKjOacc/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[candyredmusings]

[mymurderbooks]

The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires

Title: The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires

Author: Grady Hendrix

Rating: ★★★★★

—

"The Bible is hardly the best source for legal strategy," Maryellen said.

---

I saw this book floating around Instagram. I love the Southern vampire stuff (ie. Anne Rice and Sookie Stackhouse) and also bookclubbish things so I had to read it.

Very brief summary: The book follows Patricia and her book club. They live in the Old Village, a suburb of Charleston. Her neighbour is a vampire and children are dying. The tone is light, the story is witty and funny, and in the end the book club ladies emerge triumphant, kind of, but I finished it and felt...depressed? It's weird, but this book left me with a depressing aftertaste. 

I think because, while the ending is kind of positive, it's not that much of a win for me, because their triumphs are individual and their society hasn't really changed. The husbands are still assholes, the vampirism has lasting impact (he's an economic vampire as well: a 'land developer'), and at the end, despite everything that's happened and her apparent heartfelt sympathy, and the main character still seems to not quite instinctively include everyone into her definition of 'us'.

"The children are safe," Patricia said. "That's what matters."

Slick's throat worked for a minute, and then she said, Not the...ones in...Six Mile..."

The bookclub only really kick themselves into gear when their immediate circle is threatened, but were otherwise, if not happy about it, willing enough to ignore it and profit from it.

Also, ultimately, this is a book about women being constantly gaslighted and second guessed, and railroaded, by men around them and each other, into doing things that they know are awkward and wrong, to be 'nice', to avoid conflict, for social propriety. Even the private space of their book club is invaded. 

The bookclub ladies are sort of send-ups of Southern Stepford wife types, but they aren't wholly unbelievable. I know women like them who would act in a similar way under similar circumstances. Outside of the horror-story elements it's all realistic enough to be a little depressing, and actually that's possibly what's most depressing about it, and the real horror of the book, not the vampire.

That's how I feel, but it's not actually a dark book. I enjoyed the story. It is actually funny, it's fluid, readable, all those things. It would make a great book club book, especially because it revolves around a book club. Their true crime booklist is fabulous, and reading it I felt stirrings of desire for a true crime book club.

I've heard good things about his other books and the next thing I want to read is his Ikea horror, Horrorstör.

[candyredmusings]

[candyredmusings]

[candyredmusings]