blogger reads: one book, two takes

It's virtual book club time! For this quarter's read, Dana and I decided on a page turner (always great for summer) that is on brand, with a book club as the central characters: The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires. The horror twist (that's an actual vampire in the title) was a bit outside of my wheelhouse, but it definitely was an intriguing page-turner with a campy vibe.

Two-sentence summary: A group of housewives in 1990s Charleston are just as proper and hospitable as you might think - aside from the unusual true-crime, pulp fiction type books they are most fond of in their book club. And their "good" neighborhood is just as Southern charm-ful as you might think, until James Harris moves in down the street and they realize too late (as always happens in true-crime books), that they've welcomed a monster into their midst - and they'll need to draw on all of their vampire story knowledge to get rid of him and protect their families.

What I liked/what frustrated me: I enjoyed having a story that totally kept me on the edge of my seat and went places I didn't expect (thanks to the vampire/horror genre mash-up), along with some unexpected protagonists (some of the caricatures/dialogue of the southern housewife were rather amusing) - but that also had an interesting social commentary underneath, about class, race, misogyny, and how we marginalize certain groups, like discounting women as "just" housewives and undervalue their work, or how society wouldn't pay attention to bad things happening to Black people's children, until that thing comes from our own. Good material for actual book club discussion!

What frustrated me was that I have zero familiarity with the horror genre, so there were times when I wondered whether some of the events, like a crazed old lady found eating raccoon entrails or a crazy infestation of attacking rats, were conforming to the standard tropes, were poking fun at them, or were just plain weird pieces to the story line. Felt like I might have missed something in that sense. (Note though that while the "horror" elements kind of creeped me out - and I'm pretty squeamish about stuff like that, especially the sex-tinged parts of the vampire violence - it didn't scar me for life or anything, because I could think of it as surreal and other-wordly, not like a realistic serial killer story or something, and because of the campy vibe to the whole book's tone, it just seemed over-the-top at times rather than completely horrifying. So it is handleable even for people who don't love scary stuff.)

Favorite quote: "Sometimes Patricia wanted to be challenged. Sometimes she yearned to see what she was made of. Sometimes she remembered being a nurse before she married Carter and wondered if she could still reach into a wound and hold an artery closed iwth her fingers, or if she still had the courage to pull a fishhook out of a child's eyelid. Sometimes she craved a little danger. And that was why she had book club."

Recommended for: someone who enjoys stories with a real-world basis that tack on a dose of the surreal (such as Kevin Wilson's Nothing to See Here, for example), or something with humor that's a bit dark/morbid like My Sister, the Serial Killer (which is an excellent read, by the way!). In general, recommend for anyone who is up for a page-turning thriller with everyday people facing something unnatural.

Star rating: 3.5/5 stars - kept me turning the pages, got me thinking, but grossed me out at a couple of times because horror isn't my thing

Have you read this one? I'm very curious to hear what others think. A trusted source, Annie Jones of the From the Front Porch podcast, loved it, but then I think she also likes scary movies (which I don't). Pop over here for Dana's review too!