Skip to content
  • Home
  • Review Policy
  • Linktree
  • Contact
  • Menu Item
  • Menu Item
  • Menu Item
  • Menu Item
  • Menu Item

Westveil Publishing

Jenna Rideout | Illustrator, Book Reviewer, Author

  • Home
  • About
    • Meet Jenna
    • Review Policy
    • Linktree
    • Spam Concerns
  • Blog
    • Book Reviews
    • Author Interviews & Guest Posts
    • Book Promos
    • Book Talk, Tags & YouTube
  • Contact
  • Toggle search form
  • She’s the One Who Gets in Fights – 5 Star Book Review Book Reviews
  • Creation by Bjørn Larssen – 5 Star Book Review Book Reviews
  • Weep, Woman, Weep by Maria DeBlassie – 4 Star Book Review Book Reviews
  • Blood Sworn – 5 Star Book Review Book Reviews
  • Babel by R.F. Kuang – 5 Star Review Book Reviews
  • The Queen’s Colors by J. Edwards Holt – 5 Star Review Book Reviews
  • The Darkness Outside Us – 5 Star Book Review Book Reviews
  • 4 Star Review: Fractal Noise by Christopher Paolini Book Reviews

The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires (Review)

Posted on January 3, 2022 By Jenna Rideout No Comments on The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires (Review)

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.

I read The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix as one of my challenge books for the Spooktober Readathon in October 2021.

Please note that this post contains affiliate links, which means there is no additional cost to you if you shop using my links, but I will earn a small percentage in commission. A program-specific disclaimer is at the bottom of this post.

About the Book

The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires
by Grady Hendrix

Published 7 April 2020
Quirk Books

Genre: Vampire Horror
Page Count: 410
Add it to your Goodreads TBR!

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.

Amazon US | Amazon CA | Amazon UK

My Review

My Rating: 3.5 Stars
Consider liking my review on Goodreads

This book sounded like a lot of light paranormal fun and turned into a lot of very darkly creepy underbelly of humanity sort of horror. A monster has entered the neighbourhood, only the bookclub seems to have noticed, and any time someone tries to do something about it, bad things happen. Eventually everyone, whether self-deceived or externally encouraged to do so, turns a blind eye and moves on, but when has ignoring a problem ever made it go away?

I’m honestly not sure what to think of this book, and it’ll be a split rating 3.5 stars on my blog. On one hand, wow! This book is incredibly well written in that it made me want to crawl out of my skin and kept me guessing. The middle, when everyone is pretending everything’s okay, really sagged, but the beginning sparked my interest quickly and the last third insisted that I finish in one sitting once I’d got that far. With that said, I didn’t know I was signing up for scenes of rape and child abuse. (Content warning!)

The “vampire” in this book isn’t quite a vampire in the traditional sense, and what’s different is unique as far as I can tell. I lie what makes him different from other vampires I’ve read, and I think his particular flavour of parasitic monster works well in a suspense novel that features body horror. The fact that he’s also a garden variety sociopath is even more horrifying, and I love to hate it!

This is a creepy horror with a lot of mystery and suspense elements, and if you’re into alternative vampire stories, this might be your next five star read! Please be aware, though, that there is sexual abuse going on throughout the story and not all of the victims are of age.


Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Email
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest
  • WhatsApp
  • Mastodon

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

Book Reviews, Featured Tags:3.5 star review, Grady Hendrix, horror, quirk books, The Southern Book Clubs Guide to Slaying Vampires, Vampire Horror

Post navigation

Previous Post: The Only Good Indians – 3.5 Star Book Review
Next Post: Fan Fiction by Brent Spiner – 5 Star Book Review

Related Posts

  • Beauty in the Beast by Emily-Jane Hills Orford – 4 Star Review Book Reviews
  • The Great, Messy, Multicoloured, Monstrous, Yarn Monster – 4 Star Review Book Promos
  • Bolder Guilt-Edged – 4 Star Book Review Book Reviews
  • The Beast of Bellevue – 3.5 Star Book Review Book Reviews
  • The Isle of a Thousand Worlds – 5 Star Book Review Book Reviews
  • Bolder Blindsided – 3.5 Star Book Review Book Reviews

Leave a ReplyCancel reply

We migrated web hosts and we're still working on restoring images. Thank you for your patience!

Badges

Professional Reader
Reviews Published
80%
50 Book Reviews
NetGalley Beta Tester
Frequently Auto-Approved
Intellifluence Trusted Blogger
  • Author Interviews & Guest Posts
  • Blog
  • Book Promos
  • Book Reviews
  • Book Talk, Tags & YouTube
  • Featured
  • May 2025
  • April 2025
  • March 2025
  • February 2025
  • January 2025
  • December 2024
  • November 2024
  • October 2024
  • September 2024
  • August 2024
  • July 2024
  • June 2024
  • May 2024
  • April 2024
  • March 2024
  • February 2024
  • January 2024
  • December 2023
  • November 2023
  • October 2023
  • September 2023
  • August 2023
  • July 2023
  • June 2023
  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org
  • Cover Reveal: Monster Midwife by Lumen Reese Book Promos
  • Cover Reveal: A History of Vampires: A New Queen by Amanda Lewis Book Promos
  • A Wish Too Dark And Kind by M.L. Blackbird [Blitz w Excerpt] Book Promos
  • BLAH BLAH BLAH: A Snarky Guide to Office Lingo Book Promos
  • Of Honey and Wildfires – 5 Star Book Review Book Reviews
  • A Reservoir Man by LJ Ambrosio [Tour with Excerpt] Book Promos
  • A Dead End Job by Justin Alcala [Blitz with Excerpt] Book Promos
  • Author Guest Post with Patricia Leavy: The Location Shoot Author Interviews & Guest Posts

Original content © 2021-2024 Westveil Publishing | Submitted content rights remain with the rights holders.

%d