“The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires”: Hendrix’s Best Book To Date
A review of Grady Hendrix’s 2020 novel
I’ve read all of Grady Hendrix’s novels and each one has been a delight. He’s established himself as a unique voice in the horror genre, blending darkness, humor, and pop culture nostalgia. The only thing obviously missing is a cover design as brilliant and quirky as his previous books (like the IKEA catalog for Horrorstör or the high school yearbook and VHS tape from My Best Friend’s Exorcism). Nonetheless, the artwork retains that similar cleverness — the hardcover features a “Town of Mount Pleasant Public Library” stamp. While Exorcism was amazing, The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires edges it as his best book to date. Echoing his second novel, Hendrix revisits a late 1980s (and 1990s) Charleston neighborhood as well as the theme of friendship overcoming evil. But instead of adopting another teenage perspective, Hendrix wanted to pit Dracula against his mother.
“Sometimes she craved a little danger. And that was why she had book club.”
After giving up her nursing career, Patricia Campbell’s life is a list of never-ending domestic responsibilities. Her husband is a distant workaholic, her dementia-afflicted mother-in-law is a handful, and her kids are ungrateful and defiant…
