I have never had a book that has stayed on my mind quite like “A Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires” by Grady Hendrix. Like the title, the book itself is an eccentric story with a plot so captivating I could not put it down.
The book follows Patricia Campbell, a housewife who, along with her book club, is interested in mystery, horror and true crime novels. With her seemingly perfect family life, she never expects her suburban town to be the place of the activities she reads for her book club’s monthly meetings.
The atmosphere of the town changes when James Harris, nephew of Patricia’s neighbor, moves into his aunt’s house after her strange passing. While the town seems to be fascinated with Harris and his business schemes, Patricia seems to be the only one that can see Harris’s true identity and intentions: a predator looking for his next victim.
The story is what people would consider to be a “slow burn,” or a pretty slow placed book, but I found that it helped build up not only the tension between characters, but also fully immerse the reader into the ‘80s ambiance of a “perfect” suburbia and it’s far from perfect inhabitants.
The book tackles serious topics such as racial prejudice, sexism, grooming and there are some gruesome and very descriptive scenes that could be touchy for some readers. To balance out these scenes, though, Hendrix is able to provide comedy in the places necessary.
Ever since I finished the book, it has not left my mind. I found that Hendrix’s symbolism of a vampire for a predator in many ways–sexual, social, financial and more– was a grim yet entertaining commentary on how people may not ever truly know the people around them, and what dangers they may bring. Furthermore, I felt as though Hendrix was able to excellently bring the supernatural metaphor to a real world setting in a way that makes you not scared of fictional monsters, but of the monsters one could encounter in everyday life.
