The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires

The second in a bad run of books. TRIGGER WARNING FOR THIS REVIEW: mentions of assault and rape.

A thriller set in the ‘90’s, Patricia is a housewife, but she’s restless. When she and her friends start a true crime book club, her days seem brighter. That is, until children start going missing after the appearance of some handsome young man.

This book is dedicated to Hendrix’s mother, saying he based Patricia off of her, which is frankly so fucking disturbing after reading the book. I really liked this book at first, too. And then it slowly went downhill until it took a sharp left turn into the deep end.

I hated Carter from the beginning. He gaslit Patricia, he was awful, and he deserved the divorce. I wish Patricia had done it from the beginning. Carter is a little racist bitch, end of story.

The rest of the men were just as terrible! The wives should’ve used their book club knowledge to off their husbands. I absolutely would read a book about that.

Patricia’s character arc was pretty badass, not gonna lie. I was really happy she got her redemption arc, even if the way she did it was super creepy and debasing. I don’t know what I was expecting from a man writing women, though.

And then the deep end: TRIGGER WARNING. Whenever a book uses rape as a plot point, and especially out of the blue and especially when the book could’ve been written without it, I hate it. It adds nothing to the story, and it’s honestly something that needs to stop. ESPECIALLY for male authors, stop sexually violating your female characters for shock value. It’s not clever. It‘s not empowering. It’s fucking disgusting. What happens to this character, you may ask? Slick dies. She fucking deserved better and I’m so upset about it. It’s so disrespectful to everyone who has survived this treatment.

I’m also tired of reading vampire novels with pedophilia. I know “for the children!” and all, but it just gave me Let the Right One In vibes, and not in a good way. Also, male authors, once again looking at you: stop sexualizing young girls. It’s gross, and it says more about you than your story.

Trigger warnings: rape, gore, blood, racism, sexual assault, suicide attempt, pedophilia

⛈🌧☁️☁️☁️