The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires
The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying VampiresGrady Hendrix
Want to read
 Buy on Amazon

The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires (2020)

Grady Hendrix

Others: Overwhelmingly positive

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.

ISBN:
9781683692515
Length:
408 pages

Genres: fantasy, horror, mystery, thriller

Lists: …

Similar books

1 of 6
  • Open book

    The Fisherman

    John Langan

    2016 · 282 pages · 3 reviews

    Others: Overwhelmingly positive

    In upstate New York, in the woods around Woodstock, Dutchman's Creek flows out of the Ashokan Reservoir. Steep-banked, fast-moving, it offers the promise of fine fishing, and of something more, a possibility too fantastic to be true. When Abe and Dan, two widowers who have found solace in each other's company and a shared passion for fishing, hear rumors of the Creek, and what might be found there, the remedy to both their losses, they dismiss it as just another fish story. Soon, though, the men find themselves drawn into a tale as deep and old as the Reservoir. It's a tale of dark pacts, of long-buried secrets, and of a mysterious figure known as Der Fisher: the Fisherman. It will bring Abe and Dan face to face with all that they have lost, and with the price they must pay to regain it.

    Why?

    What made the match, strongest first

    Also fantasy and horror
    54%
    On 4 of the same lists
    37%
    BooksandLala loved both
    9%
    Personalize your recommendations
  • Open book

    The Only Good Indians

    Stephen Graham Jones

    2019 · 313 pages · 13 reviews

    Others: Mostly positive

    Ten years ago outside Browning, Montana, four Blackfeet shot some elk, and then went on with their lives. It happens every year, it’s been happening forever, it’s the way it’s always been. But this time it’s different. Ten years after that fateful hunt, these men are being stalked, are being hunted themselves. By who? By . . . what? And why? Some hunting expeditions, they’re never really over. This one’s just beginning.

    Why?

    What made the match, strongest first

    Also fantasy and horror
    56%
    On 5+ of the same lists
    35%
    BooksandLala loved both
    9%
    Personalize your recommendations
  • Open book

    Pallbearers Club

    Paul Tremblay

    2022 · 288 pages · 11 reviews

    Others: Leaning positive

    10 hours 46 minutes A cleverly voiced psychological thriller about an unforgettable - and unsettling - friendship, with blood-chilling twists, crackling wit, and a thrumming pulse in its veins - from the nationally best-selling author of 'The Cabin at the End of the World' and 'Survivor Song'. What if the coolest girl you’ve ever met decided to be your friend? Art Barbara was so not cool. He was a seventeen-year-old high school loner in the late 1980s who listened to hair metal, had to wear a monstrous back-brace at night for his scoliosis, and started an extracurricular club for volunteer pallbearers at poorly attended funerals. But his new friend thought the Pallbearers’ Club was cool. And she brought along her Polaroid camera to take pictures of the corpses. Okay, that part was a little weird. So was her obsessive knowledge of a notorious bit of New England folklore that involved digging up the dead. And there were other strange things – terrifying things – that happened when she was around, usually at night. But she was his friend, so it was okay, right? Decades later, Art tries to make sense of it all by writing 'The Pallbearers’ Club: A Memoir'. But somehow this friend got her hands on the manuscript and, well, she has some issues with it. And now she’s making cuts. Seamlessly blurring the lines between fiction and memory, the supernatural and the mundane, 'THE PALLBEARERS CLUB' is an immersive, suspenseful portrait of an unforgettable and unsettling friendship. ©2022 Paul Tremblay (P)2022 HarperCollins Publishers

    Why?

    What made the match, strongest first

    Also fantasy and horror
    58%
    On 2 of the same lists
    37%
    BooksandLala loved both
    5%
    Personalize your recommendations
  • Open book

    The Hollow Places

    T. Kingfisher

    2020 · 352 pages · 6 reviews

    Others: Leaning positive

    Pray they are hungry. Kara finds the words in the mysterious bunker that she’s discovered behind a hole in the wall of her uncle’s house. Freshly divorced and living back at home, Kara now becomes obsessed with these cryptic words and starts exploring this peculiar area—only to discover that it holds portals to countless alternate realities. But these places are haunted by creatures that seem to hear thoughts…and the more one fears them, the stronger they become. (https://www.redwombatstudio.com/)

    Why?

    What made the match, strongest first

    Also fantasy and horror
    45%
    On 5+ of the same lists
    45%
    BooksandLala loved both
    10%
    Personalize your recommendations
  • Open book

    Mexican Gothic

    Silvia Moreno-Garcia

    2020 · 320 pages · 30 reviews

    Others: Mostly positive

    An isolated mansion. A chillingly charismatic aristocrat. And a brave socialite drawn to expose their treacherous secrets. . . . From the author of Gods of Jade and Shadow comes “a terrifying twist on classic gothic horror” (Kirkus Reviews) set in glamorous 1950s Mexico. After receiving a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She’s not sure what she will find—her cousin’s husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and Noemí knows little about the region. Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She’s a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she’s also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: Not of her cousin’s new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemi’s dreams with visions of blood and doom. Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family’s youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí, but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family’s past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family’s once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness. And Noemí, mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it impossible to ever leave this enigmatic house behind.

    Why?

    What made the match, strongest first

    On 5+ of the same lists
    52%
    Also fantasy and horror
    47%
    Similar descriptions
    1%
    Personalize your recommendations
  • Open book

    Bless Your Heart

    Lindy Ryan

    2024 · 1 review

    Others: Positive

    Rise and shine. The Evans women have some undead to kill. It’s 1999 in Southeast Texas and the Evans women, owners of the only funeral parlor in town, are keeping steady with…normal business. The dead die, you bury them. End of story. That’s how Ducey Evans has done it for the last eighty years, and her progeny―Lenore the experimenter and Grace, Lenore’s soft-hearted daughter, have run Evans Funeral Parlor for the last fifteen years without drama. Ever since That Godawful Mess that left two bodies in the ground and Grace raising her infant daughter Luna, alone. But when town gossip Mina Jean Murphy’s body is brought in for a regular burial and she rises from the dead instead, it’s clear that the Strigoi―the original vampire―are back. And the Evans women are the ones who need to fight back to protect their town. As more folks in town turn up dead and Deputy Roger Taylor begins asking way too many questions, Ducey, Lenore, Grace, and now Luna, must take up their blades and figure out who is behind the Strigoi’s return. As the saying goes, what rises up, must go back down. But as unspoken secrets and revelations spill from the past into the present, the Evans family must face that sometimes, the dead aren’t the only things you want to keep buried. A crackling mystery-horror novel with big-hearted characters and Southern charm with a bite, Bless Your Heart is a gasp-worthy delight from start to finish.

    Why?

    What made the match, strongest first

    Also fantasy and horror
    63%
    On 2 of the same lists
    33%
    Similar descriptions
    4%
    Personalize your recommendations

Reviews7

ChapterStackss
Loved it

This book had just everything i needed in it this year obviously i love horror i needed some funny entertainment the first 10 pages of this book just had me outright laughing which is really rare. I don't think this is a perfect book by any means but it's just exactly what i needed.