The Southern Book Club's Guide To Slaying Vampires
A juicy little book review
Patricia Campbell is a Southern woman, a devoted mother, and a dutiful wife. She lives a small life in a small town and an even smaller marriage. Her mother-in-law, Miss Mary has moved into the den, taken to saying strange things, even appearing once in front of Patricia’s entire book club in the nude. Her teenage daughter is uninterested, her husband is always ‘working late’, and Patricia has one thing in her life that allows her to be a little less small: her book club. That is until James Harris moves into the neighborhood and Patricia becomes a little more prone to scandal and intrigue.
Admittedly I know next to nothing about the author, Grady Hendrix. In fact, I only learned today that this book was even written by a man (something I tend to avoid these days). But my sister had recommended The Southern Book Club’s Guide To Slaying Vampires as a fun read and, per usual, her recommendation did not disappoint.
Welcome to the height of Satanic Panic, but from a mother’s perspective. This is a layered, detailed, twisting little story about a book club made of respectable women who have a deep fascination with horror, unsolved crimes, and serial killers. They gather around books they would never tell their husbands about and their lives become so much more like family than friends. They swap parenting advice, navigate gossip and strange experiences, and show up for each other when they’re overwhelmed. But all along the way Patricia is carrying a horrifyingly discovered secret. James Harris, the mysterious new neighbor, is a vampire.
There are no Twilight-esque vamps here. Harris is charming and strategic. And he’s clearly perfected the long con, luring Patricia into his web of lies, manipulation, and control. But whirling around her life are stories of children going missing, her mother-in-law’s insistence that she knew Harris when she was a little girl, her husband’s obvious affairs, and a seemingly perfect life crumbling around her.
Now that I know this book was written by a man a few things make sense and I’m about to lay it out. I’m giving this book a solid 3 stars because it was just so fun, AND YET there are a few things that didn’t hit the 5-star mark for me.
About 2/3 of the way through there is a described, but not witnessed rape scene. Reading it felt…. just kind of off. At the time I chalked it up to the author maybe not being a survivor of SA and possibly not knowing how to write the experience. But now I think it’s interesting to note that, although the author may of course have some personal experience here, he doesn’t have that experience inside the body of a woman. I generally don’t enjoy men writing from the perspective of women. It feels hollow, lacking, almost invasive. So this scene likely could have been skipped altogether and if it had I’d likely bump it up a star.
One of my favorite characters was Mrs. Greene, a Black woman who worked as a nurse with Miss Mary. She was one of the most pivotal and interesting characters (there’s a scene with a flood of rats that had me scrambling up the walls wanting to save her) and I’d read it all again just for her shining moments. Still, I got a little taste of white saviorism every now and then. Patricia as the hero, Patricia as the cornerstone to saving the lives of the missing children. If you ask me Mrs. Greene was the real hero. She held steady, did not waver, and kept going. She did not cower, did not forget her community, and did not relent in doing whatever it took to save the children. She walked around with everyone’s secrets tucked below her arm and led a motley crew of mothers through a supernatural horror. Mrs. Greene for president, baby.
Now, the husbands were intolerable. I mean intolerable. They were expertly written as misogynistic, condescending, controlling, and selfish. God, we love/hate to look deep into the eyes of an accurate depiction of patriarchal gender norms. It reminds us that, behind most obedient wives, there are indifferent husbands gifting them fake pearl earrings and leaving them to face the monster in the backyard all alone. One scene in particular, with the whole gaggle of husbands in the same room, had me so angry I had to set the book aside for a bit, but I came back again. If only to see the women rise.
Because ultimately this is a book of sisterhood. It is a reminder that no one else is going to do it for us. If we want to face the beast, we’re gonna need the women. And sure as hell they come with shovels, with hefty bags, with formulas for deep cleaning the carpets because there’s only one way to stop a vampire. And the most believable part of the entire story is that it’s a book club of women who finally does it.
*if you choose to read from either of these links, thank you. It means so much to me that you support me in even the smallest of ways. I can’t wait to hear what you think of the book too.
This month inside Wild Soul we’re reading My First and Only Love by Palestinian author Sahar Khalifeh. Join us if you’re interested!