The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires

By: Grady Hendrix

Narrated by: Bahni Turpin

Length: 13 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's summary

Fried Green Tomatoes and Steel Magnolias meet Dracula in this Southern-flavored supernatural thriller set in the '90s about a women's book club that must protect its suburban community from a mysterious and handsome stranger who turns out to be a real monster.

Patricia Campbell's life has never felt smaller. Her ambitious husband is too busy to give her a goodbye kiss in the morning, her kids have their own lives, her senile mother-in-law needs constant care, and she's always a step behind on thank-you notes and her endless list of chores. The one thing she has to look forward to is her book club, a close-knit group of Charleston women united by their love of true crime and paperback fiction. At these meetings they're as likely to talk about the Manson family as they are marriage, motherhood, and neighborhood gossip.

This predictable pattern is upended when Patricia meets James Harris, a handsome stranger who moves into the neighborhood to take care of his elderly aunt and ends up joining the book club. James is sensitive and well-read, and he makes Patricia feel things she hasn't felt in 20 years. But there's something off about him. He doesn't have a bank account, he doesn't like going out during the day, and Patricia's mother-in-law insists that she knew him when she was a girl, an impossibility.

When local children go missing, Patricia and the book club members start to suspect James is more of a Bundy than a Beatnik, but no one outside of the book club believes them. Have they read too many true crime books, or have they invited a real monster into their homes?

©2020 Grady Hendrix (P)2020 Blackstone Publishing

Entertaining easy read for spooky season

Perfect easy entertaining read and I love Bahni Turpin’s narration. It has bits of horror, racism, feminism, and comedy. She also narrates Fried Green Tomatoes and was a perfect fit for that.

Not Great, Not Terrible

First off.. The woman reading this book was AWFUL. Do you know what the difference between ( , ) and ( . ) is?! JEEZUS. Talk about ridiculous! The fake Southern accent was as bad as the real thing.

Secondly the main characters family was sh!t, if the fckn Vampire didn't kill them all I was about ready for her to SNAP and kill them all herself, which ultimately would have made this a better story in the long run 😂 there was no major twists or anything jaw dropping but it also wasn't as child rapey as some of the 'commenting Karens' would have you believe. There is rape, but its not incredibly descriptive and its a brief detail.. Honestly its not worse than anything you'd read by Anne Rice.. Compared to her books this is PG.

This book just wasn't special, it was nice to help pass some time but I'm not blown away by it and it could have been way darker.

Southern ladies culture Spot on!

My daughter talked me into this book. Vampire books or movies just isn’t my jam. But she convinced me & I absolutely couldn’t put it down. The lady that did the narration was fabulous and just greatly entertained me. She was as good as the story! I highly recommend this book!
Teresa

Fun Read especially if you have a great bookclub

Very entertaining story. I love my bookclub and I love vampires so the story had me by the title alone, but overall it had great character development, you really fall in love with all the characters. Besides a fun story line,
the audible performance was top notch!

exceptional narration and an excellent story

amazing narrator and the story is amazing. The author is great at having a functional group of realistic characters.

Wow!

This book was everything I look for in a good horror read! It was as hilariously funny as it was epically gory and horrific! The performance was also amazing! Loved listing to this one and would highly recommend!

A Must Read

This book will have you on the edge of your seat-wonderfully written. Full of suspense and imagination! Loved it!

Beware of the horror scenes...

I’ll start by saying I loved her writing style. But this is a horror genre and my book club picked it because it had the same kind of “funky title” and as “the Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society.”
To be clear, those two books couldn’t be more dissimilar! :)
This book is well written, the pace kept me invested, the characters were believable - and the reference to old favorites that they read for their books club(s) was delightfully nostalgic for me.
The gross scenes were Stephen King level gross, so without noting any spoilers, it’s got some pretty intense scenes.
Enjoy?

Great story great voice acting

This author always takes her heroines to the edges of despair with no way forward but through satans bloody maw. There is a reference sexual assault and some tough bodily descriptions. Do not listen to this while eating spaghetti and meatballs. I really loved it. Like really really.

Awesome in every way!

This book is just the kind of book everyone will enjoy reading. The story takes you through a plethora of unique characters and specific details only your imagination could conjure. It is witty, funny, and surprising all at the same time. A fantastic read!