The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires is immediately charming, with all the hospitality of a cozy southern neighborhood. However, like many things with a charming veneer, darkness hides underneath the beautiful surface. The only thing standing between that darkness and the brighter, naive neighborhood is the members of the local ladies’ book club, and those ladies are what makes this book so fascinating. Each character has a unique and engaging personality. It is obvious that the author crafted each one using the inspiration of a stereotype commonly found in the Deep South. Among the club, there’s the high society dilettante, the Bible-thumper, and even the northern transplant trying to find her place in the group. The author does a superb job with each, so it is also immediately apparent that he is very familiar with the society and those stereotypes. The resulting cast is endearing, lovable, and easy to sympathize with, in addition to each contributing some moments that will make anyone with even a passing familiarity with Southern culture laugh out loud. The only disadvantage to the adherence to such cultural norms is that at one point their strict clinging to propriety in the face of a situation that cannot be solved by what is proper leaves the reader feeling frustrated at the actions of the characters. Overall, the story is a good one, and the characters are entertaining.
The book is not all a fun lark of a tale, though. From its lighthearted and humorous beginning, it takes some dark turns, and when it turns, the author doesn’t wander only a little way into violence and fear. He grabs the wheel and yanks hard, lurching the narrative with enthusiasm into a tale of horror. This is a delightful book…for those who enjoy the delights of the macabre and who relish dark humor.
Content Analysis:
Profanity/Language: 9 religious exclamations; 2 mild obscenities; 4 derogatory names; 2 f-word derivatives.
Violence/Gore: A few verbal threats; report of child setting sibling’s hair on fire; report of deaths by natural causes; report of blood during childbirth; discussion of blood; report of a child driving their bike off a pier (no injury); a few historical reports of serial killers; a child has an accident with minor injury (comic); report of a snake beaten to death; a woman jokes she’ll “blow her brains out”; a few discussions of violence in books; a few reports of gory medical procedures and experiments; an adult eats a dead animal without cooking it; a fight in which characters are badly wounded, with blood described, which is mentioned a few times later; a few reports of a murders; a few reports of suicides, some of which are done by children; a character is mauled by wild animals; a few creepy scene in which women and children are stalked; a few characters die from previous injuries; report of a character brutally murdered, with few details; a pet animal is badly injured; an urban legend about gang members killing people is told; report of kidnappings; a character drinks a child’s blood; a scary scene in which characters are chased and injured; report of a historical serial killer drinking blood; report of vandalism; report of a child hit in the head and badly injured by a cop; characters dismember a person while the victim is still alive, with blood and gore described; a character attempts to commit suicide by overdosing on prescription medicine; a report of a man hitting his wife; a creepy scene with a ghost; a character slaps herself; characters find a dead body; a creepy and gross scene with bugs; report of bodies found, some of which were babies; a vivid description of a corpse; a bloody fight in which characters are stabbed and beaten; a description of cleaning up a gory mess.
Sex/Nudity: Report of blood during childbirth; report of young child running naked in public (nonsexual); historical report of hippies having “free love” (no details); a woman gives a man CPR then considers that she enjoyed being close to him; adults hold hands; discussion of a man seducing a woman in a romance novel (no details); women talk about whether one of them would sleep with a man other than her husband; an elderly character is naked in front of other people, with their body and aging described, in a non-sexual scene; a few implications that a man was inappropriate with children (no details); a man bites a young girl on her inner thigh (non-sexual); a few discussions of child molestation (no details); adults hug; mention that a book includes prostitution; a graphic report of a rape, including physical evidence; a woman is naked with another woman who is administering medical care to her; an adult male and teenage female engage in erotic behavior with each other, with nudity involved, and the scene is descriptive; report of teen girl having an erotic encounter with an adult man multiple times in the past; a few reports of married men sleeping with women who are not their wives, some of whom were prostitutes; a woman wears a skimpy dress and tries to seduce a man; a few erotic scenes between an adult man and woman with graphic nudity described; a man is naked in a nonsexual context, and his genitals are described; a mention of a sexually transmitted disease.
Mature Subject Matter:
A character is fascinated with Nazis and the history of Nazi Germany; mention of the Holocaust; a child is taken from their parent by protective services; child molestation; death (child, parent, friend, pet); kidnapping; suicide (reported, attempted), police brutality (reported); domestic violence (reported); mental illness; abortion (mentioned); gaslighting; racism and racial discrimination; murder; gender discrimination; miscarriage (reported); sexually transmitted disease (mentioned); prostitution (reported).
Alcohol/Drug Use:
Adults drink wine; adults smoke tobacco; speculation that a character is a drug dealer; Prohibition is mentioned; prescription medication is used; a character overdoses on prescription medication; mention of “crack babies”.
