The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires - Grady Hendrix

100-Word (or Less) Synopsis: When your social outlet revolves around analyzing notorious killers, do you end up searching for them in your daily life, too? Patricia Campbell is the picture-perfect Southern wife and mother — strong-willed and God-fearing with impeccable manners. But when folks start meeting grisly ends, all clues lead to the mysterious new neighbor who has an uncanny way of making people trust him. After years of trying to unravel the puzzle, Patricia finds herself battling her friends and family as much as the evil that may lurk down the street.

Expectation: A comedy-horror mashup oozing with Southern sensibility.

Reality: An over-done nostalgia trip with weak character development and more internal than vampiric strife.

Recommended For: People that like “True Blood” more than “Twilight.”

Why I Read It: Scrolling through the “What’s New” feature in Libby — as one does most evenings while half-watching TV — I was immediately caught by the cover of Grady Hendrix’s latest novel. Peaches! Fangs! The South! But, honestly, whomever wrote the synopsis deserves a raise, because reading that from top to bottom was a lot more fulfilling than finishing the actual book.

My Take: There was quite a bit I liked about “Vampires,” and the story will certainly find an audience, but this one batted about 500 for me.

First, four things I liked:

1.    The cast of characters could best be described as "Designing Women" meets "Candyman," which is a mash-up I didn't realize I needed.

2.    The final reveal was a somewhat fresh take on the vampire genre.

3.    There was true emotion, something not always seen in genre books, that had me tearing up a little at the end.

4.    Hendrix nailed a perfectly nostalgic premise, and I wouldn’t be opposed to picking up another of his books in the future.

Now, four things I didn’t:

1.    The story could not sustain 400+ pages. If about 125 pages were trimmed from the final manuscript, this could have easily been a four-star read.

2.    There were several instances where the narrative picked up steam, only to end on a cliff hanger that was followed by a time jump. This effectively killed any momentum.

3.    Most of the secondary characters, and even a few of the main characters, were not well-developed, which made it difficult to care what happened to them — until the final act.

4.    Racial disparities, religious conflict and wifely duties were a constant thread, but they were never explored in enough detail to give meaning to the broader story.

Even though I only found the antagonist kinda scary — let's just say he's no Kurt Barlow — there were a few scares and some gore to satisfy the horror crowd, with enough humor (mostly tied to Southern decorum) to keep it light.

Ultimately, the story becomes bogged down by its own weight. I understand why Hendrix wanted to make the story run over the course of a decade, which allowed it to be anchored in some realism, but dragging it out meant a lot of unneeded subplots that just weren’t interesting.

Rating (story): 2.5/5 stars

Rating (narration): 4/5 stars

Format: Audiobook (library loan)

Dates read: May 17 - May 23, 2020

Multi-tasking: Good to go.