Southern housewives fighting evil…one could argue they fight the good fight every day in the form of their children and husbands, but Grady Hendrix places a vampire in a small southern town as the dark, disruptive force. When a charming drifter shows up in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina he brings Patricia Campbell’s book club under his spell, thrusting Patricia – who gave up her successful career as a nurse to raise her two children so her husband could have his burgeoning career as a doctor – at the center of events. She falls under his spell, initially – he gives her attention she hadn’t experienced in years.
Steel Magnolias meets Dracula in this ’90s-set horror novel about a women’s book club that must do battle with a mysterious newcomer to their small Southern town, perfect for murderinos and fans of Stephen King.
Patricia Campbell’s life has never felt smaller. Her husband is a workaholic, her teenage kids have their own lives, her senile mother-in-law needs constant care, and she’s always a step behind on her endless to-do list. The only thing keeping her sane is her book club, a close-knit group of Charleston women united by their love of true crime. At these meetings they’re as likely to talk about the Manson family as they are about their own families.
One evening after book club, Patricia is viciously attacked by an elderly neighbor, bringing the neighbor’s handsome nephew, James Harris, into her life. James is well traveled and well read, and he makes Patricia feel things she hasn’t felt in years. But when children on the other side of town go missing, their deaths written off by local police, Patricia has reason to believe James Harris is more of a Bundy than a Brad Pitt. The real problem? James is a monster of a different kind—and Patricia has already invited him in.
Little by little, James will insinuate himself into Patricia’s life and try to take everything she took for granted—including the book club—but she won’t surrender without a fight in this blood-soaked tale of neighborly kindness gone wrong.
Hendrix sets the tone for Patricia early on – for a woman who once helped to save lives as a nurse, “domestic life” has transformed her personality into something…mousy. She’s terrified to show up at a book club meeting, having to take her turn to lead the discussion for the monthly book which she hasn’t read. However, other members of the club approach her and bring her into their fold for another club with books that Patricia actually enjoys reading. Soon enough, Patricia finds these women to be the friends she’d been missing in her life.
The majority of the early portion of the novel establishes Patricia’s life; two teenage children – a girl who is growing distant, a son who is increasingly fascinated by violence; her elderly mother in law, Miss Mary, who suffers from dementia, and her husband, Carter, largely absent from family life as he is growing his career. But Patricia finds solace in not just the more interesting books of her new book club, but the friendships she cultivates, many of whom are housewives to affluent, successful husbands. Hendrix does a really nice job of giving each of these women (Kitty, Slick, Maryellen, Grace) a unique voice and identity. They each provide support of a different kind to Patricia, though some at higher levels than others.
Patricia makes some missteps along the way when James Harris, the aforementioned charming stranger, shows up to care for his elderly aunt, Anne Savage. Patricia invites him into her house and helps him to establish his financial foundation in the town. Shortly after his arrival, the typically mundane elements of Mount Pleasant are overshadowed by strange and dark events, which begins with Patricia finding James’s “Aunt” scrounging in the garbage before being attacked by the Aunt, Patricia soon suspects James’s charming nature is just a high gloss exterior hiding something a little darker.
Grady builds tension slowly, methodically, and brilliantly through the first third of the novel. He does a wonderful job of putting the reader in Patricia’s perspective, building up empathy for everything she experiences from the moment she is introduced in the opening pages. The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires is very much her story, an alternate title could have been: Patricia Campbell: Vampire Hunting Housewife…or something like that. Through Patricia, Hendrix realistically establishes suburban southern life (after all, he grew up in a town very much like the one depicted in the novel) only to show how it can be disrupted and also potentially maintained through the strength and conviction of one character.
Let’s get to the Vampire, James Harris. An unassuming name, but what Grady does with the vampire mythos in the character is both 100% true to some of the collectively held (and adored) tropes, but spins them out logically with a modern sensibility. In other words, Grady Hendrix has created a vampire that he can truly call his own, very much like Anne Rice gave the world LeStat and Stephen King gave the world Kurt Barlow. That said – it is impossible NOT to compare a novel like this – small town life disrupted by a dark force, specifically a Vampire – to Stephen King’s masterpiece, ‘Salem’s Lot. Some of the elements are the same, in terms of how the community as a whole is affected and a unique protagonist (how many housewives/mothers of two are vampire hunters these days) that elicits support, but Hendrix has carved out his own story.
Horror is a genre that can often be used to illuminate some of the less pleasant things in society, like racism and misogyny. Here, Hendrix shows the inequity of the male/female divide in society with women relegated to the homes as obedient mothers who should be seen and not heard. While James Harris as the vampire is the most blatant monster, he only serves to show how bad man can be and how less overt ways of misogyny can be dangerous. Or in other words, believe women. Plain and simple.
The novel is a slow burn. While I can understand that some readers may have issue with how much narrative time Grady Hendrix spends before getting to the action, for me, everything worked perfectly. It is powerfully effective and makes the consequences of ignorance underlying the majority of narrative so powerful, that foundation made the conclusion that much more potent and enjoyable.
Grady Hendrix is growing into a master of the horror genre with each book he publishes, he’s become a must read for me and The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires is just proof of his mastery of storytelling.
Highly recommended.
© 2020 Rob H. Bedford
Published by Quirk Books | April 2020
Hardcover | 403 Pages
http://www.gradyhendrix.com/
Review copy purchased
