English language
Published Feb. 27, 2020 by Blackstone Publishing.
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, …
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 twenty 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?
I like this a lot, but it did get more heavy than I expected. It starts out feeling like a "hah, these are tough housewives, of course they can defeat the vampire" story, but their own racism as well as their surroundings' sexism make everything go to a pretty tragic direction.
Okay. I really liked this book. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because it squicked me out in a couple of places where the descriptions were very explicit. Not saying they weren't well done, because they were, they were just a little intense body-horror-wise which is not my jam. BUT, I enjoyed it much much more than I didn't and it makes me want to read more Grady Hendrix.
As an entry in the Vampire Canon... I find it interesting. It definitely breaks some new ground, as far as lore and biology are concerned, but I thought that the vampire was more akin to a Xenomorph in human skin than an old school vamp. Which is RAD! But it didn't feel like a true vampire story to me for that reason.
Also the title is misleading, because it's not much of a guide. I was expecting …
Okay. I really liked this book. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because it squicked me out in a couple of places where the descriptions were very explicit. Not saying they weren't well done, because they were, they were just a little intense body-horror-wise which is not my jam. BUT, I enjoyed it much much more than I didn't and it makes me want to read more Grady Hendrix.
As an entry in the Vampire Canon... I find it interesting. It definitely breaks some new ground, as far as lore and biology are concerned, but I thought that the vampire was more akin to a Xenomorph in human skin than an old school vamp. Which is RAD! But it didn't feel like a true vampire story to me for that reason.
Also the title is misleading, because it's not much of a guide. I was expecting an omniscient narrator a la Hitchhiker's Guide. Instead I got a fun romp of middle-aged ladies who really needed better husbands. None of the ladies were as strong as I wanted them to be (except maybe Mrs. Green), they all had flaws, and they all grew. So, I can't really complain, it just wasn't quite what I expected or wanted.
But, I still really liked it.
Die Prämisse war so nice: Hausfrauen als übersehene Protagonist:innen von Vampirgeschichten ebenso wie generell, deren Widerstandskraft und Ressourcenreichtum in der Literatur wie Gesellschaft nicht gewürdigt wird. Das endlich mal sichtbar zu machen wäre eine saugute Ausgangslage für ein Buch - und mit diesem Claim wurde es auch beworben.
Leider war es das schon an feministischem oder sonstwie politischem Potential, denn das Buch hält nicht was es verspricht. Was serviert wird ist beleidigend: Die Story hat so viele Anschlussfehler das es schmerzt, sie wiederholt sich quasi drei Mal, das Pacing ist sloooow..., die Charaktere platt und eigentlich geht doch wieder alles nur um einen Typen, dessen Sadismus und ein bisschen um ein paar Hausfrauen aus der Oberschicht (und eine einzige arme, Schwarze Mutter, gnarf).
Statt Tropes auf den Kopf zu stellen und den immergleichen Vampirgeschichten einen neuen Spin zu geben bekommen wir frauenfeindliche Tropes, Vergewaltigungen und anderer sexualisierte oder sexuell aufgeladene …
Die Prämisse war so nice: Hausfrauen als übersehene Protagonist:innen von Vampirgeschichten ebenso wie generell, deren Widerstandskraft und Ressourcenreichtum in der Literatur wie Gesellschaft nicht gewürdigt wird. Das endlich mal sichtbar zu machen wäre eine saugute Ausgangslage für ein Buch - und mit diesem Claim wurde es auch beworben.
Leider war es das schon an feministischem oder sonstwie politischem Potential, denn das Buch hält nicht was es verspricht. Was serviert wird ist beleidigend: Die Story hat so viele Anschlussfehler das es schmerzt, sie wiederholt sich quasi drei Mal, das Pacing ist sloooow..., die Charaktere platt und eigentlich geht doch wieder alles nur um einen Typen, dessen Sadismus und ein bisschen um ein paar Hausfrauen aus der Oberschicht (und eine einzige arme, Schwarze Mutter, gnarf).
Statt Tropes auf den Kopf zu stellen und den immergleichen Vampirgeschichten einen neuen Spin zu geben bekommen wir frauenfeindliche Tropes, Vergewaltigungen und anderer sexualisierte oder sexuell aufgeladene Gewalt (auch gegen Kinder..), Folter usw. dargeboten.
Der Unterschied zu nicht explizit das Genre ändern wollenden und sich feministisch gebenden Büchern ist echt trivial und mir jetzt ziemlich übel.
I thought this would be fun but it touched on a lot of serious topics (gaslighting, domestic abuse, sexual assault, racism, sexism) as well as being quite gory. Not quite sure it's what I felt like reading right now but the audiobook helped, and I don't want to down-rate it just because it was something other than what I expected.
