As soon as I saw “The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires” by Grady Hendrix all over the feeds of the readers/reviewers I follow on Instagram last year, I was intrigued.
The eye-catching cover and title are, ahem, killer, and the premise made this vampire lover’s fangs tingle. Bored Southern housewives in a true crime book club suddenly find themselves facing a supernatural evil right in their own tony backyards? I’m in!
So when I started reading it as 2/21 in my #21in21 reading challenge, I wanted to love it. I thought I would love it — yet I found it infuriating, but not because of the horror or gore.
The characters have no redeeming qualities and their constant inaction to plot points like A) the deadly threat against the poor children in the area; B) blatantly ignoring 10-year-old Blue’s obsession with all things Nazi; and C) kowtowing to their husbands’ racism, sexism and misogyny — in the ’90s, not the ’50s, mind you — left such a bad taste in my mouth.
And, in my humble opinion, it was such tired way for a man to write from a woman’s perspective.
While I will admit that intriguing premise on its own did make “Southern Book Club” a page-turner — and that I’d love to be part of a book club like these ridiculous women were in — I was severely disappointed by this book.
Up next: Chloe Gong’s “These Violent Delights.”
Ink for Blood 