Rating - ⭐⭐⭐.75
"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."
The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires is a standalone horror book by Grady Hendrix.
I have known about this book for a while, but never actually ended up putting it on my TBR for some reason even though I had read books from the author before. Something about it had me hesitating to read this for some reason, but I was in the mood for horror and this one was available to read right away on Libby so I went for it.
My experience reading this ended up being a bit of a roller coaster, full of ups and downs. The book ended up catching my attention right away with a fantastic opening line - "this story ends in blood." I was also equally impressed by something the author said in the forward which, though I didn't fully agree with because I know that (as a true crime fan) many serial killers were actually family men, stuck out to me.
"Because vampires are the original serial killers, stripped of everything that makes us human - they have no friends, no family, no roots, no children. All they have is hunger. They eat and eat but they're never full."
The momentum the opening of the book gave me propelled me forward for quite a while, and I was enjoying the Fright Night-esque plot rather well, but then that momentum halted right as I got halfway through. I was surprised by how quickly the book moved at first since things started happening right away, and I was a bit frustrated by the characters' decisions to let the guy in, but the book does play into the serial killer stereotype of a 'charming good-looking man' which worked. Patricia fully admits that he gives her Ted Bundy vibes which, you know, is a massive red flag she ends up ignoring, but again it worked for his character.
I digress, though, despite the minor faults that bothered me, I wasn't having a bad time until I was. Things got a bit rocky for me about halfway through the book which ended up dropping my enjoyment level completely. I was not too fond of the direction the book went in at this point, nor did I like how Patricia's character arc was handled. Sure, the story did end up back on track after a time skip, but I was so thrown by the development that I kind of just wanted to put the book down.
Even with the hiccup though, I didn't end up dropping my rating too much and settled with an uneven 3.75 stars. It didn't quite reach 'good' status in my books, but it was above a 'meh'. Still, though, it went better than I was expecting, and I might just pick up My Best Friend's Exorcism as well which is apparently set in the same universe.
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