“You think we can’t match him? I’ve had three children, and some man who’s never felt his baby crown is stronger than me? Is tougher than me? He thinks we’re what we look like on the outside: nice Southern ladies. Let me tell you something, there’s nothing nice about Southern ladies.”
Grady Hendrix has become rather famous in the horror-comedy subgenre, making a name for himself and winning multiple awards in the process. With hits like The Final Girl Support Group, My Best Friend’s Exorcism, and We Sold Our Souls, it is clear that many people enjoy his quirky take on the horror genre. Speaking for myself, very rarely do I find myself enjoying female characters written by men, especially female protagonists. They are always too simple, too appealing to the male gaze, and usually their ultimate goal is to win over some mediocre man by the end of the novel. They are written to be pretty and clean and, again, appealing to the male gaze. That is what makes the horror genre so impactful- female characters are able to be the protagonist covered in blood and guts wielding a knife, and that is exactly how Hendrix wrote this ragtag group of women. Yes, they can be petty and superficial, yes they are the stereotypical domestic mother and wife, but these women are the ones you want by your side in a fight, especially a fight with a vampire.
The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires follows Patricia and her seemingly perfect life, one where she gave up being a nurse in order to be a housewife and mother. She does everything right- she marries a doctor, she has two beautiful children, and she even finds the time to be a member of the local book club with several other neighborhood ladies. However, despite how picturesque it appears, Patricia’s life is rather uneventful, about as boring as her book club. Actually, she hates her book club, and so do the other members. They want to read books about true crime and murder and something other than the “great works of literature”, so Patricia and a few of the other book club members make their own book club where they read the books that keep most people up at night, and life is good… until a stranger named James Harris moves in down the street, turning Patricia’s life into one she doesn’t recognize anymore. Slowly she sees her life becoming more like the ones in her true crime novels and no longer the vision of domestic heaven.
Grady Hendrix has a way with the written word. With that, it is an understatement to say that I enjoyed this book. Truly, the whole thing, from start to finish, had me in its grasp and I had no interest in it letting me go. Something else to note about this book is how cleverly Hendrix uses a vampire as a metaphor for essentially what one would consider a child predator. I say this because the first several victims we learn about are children, young children, and the location of which they are bitten is suggestive. We see this man slowly incorporate himself into the community, slowly win over all the adults in the town, and slowly intertwine himself in the professional and personal lives of many of the husbands. Patricia and the other mothers watch as he becomes a pillar of the community, continuing to infiltrate their lives and, over time, corrupt their children.
One of the more impactful aspects of this book is the writing, obviously, but I find Grady Hendrix’s ability to write a set of believable and likable female characters to be astounding. Rooting for Patricia as she tries to grab hold of the monster that’s taking the lives of the children around her was SO easy, SO rewarding, and SO much fun. She really comes into her own, no longer hiding behind her role of a housewife, and throws herself into the direct line of danger.
Readers follow her character arc unfold through each chapter, making her rather dynamic as she transitions from this meek woman to a literal vampire slayer. I found the strength of these ladies making me very proud of being from a small, Southern town (and that never happens, the opposite, in fact) because they went through hell and back to save their children AND have a hot dinner ready every single night.
