Clare L. Deming

I wasn’t aware of this book until it was chosen by one of my book clubs. And once I heard the title, I had to make sure I picked it up. The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires was the first book by Grady Hendrix that I’ve read.

Here is the blurb:

Patricia Campbell had always planned for a big life, but after giving up her career as a nurse to marry an ambitious doctor and become a mother, Patricia’s life has never felt smaller. The days are long, her kids are ungrateful, her husband is distant, and her to-do list is never really done. The one thing she has to look forward to is her book club, a group of Charleston mothers united only by their love for true-crime and suspenseful fiction. In these meetings, they’re more likely to discuss the FBI’s recent siege of Waco as much as the ups and downs of marriage and motherhood.

But when an artistic and sensitive stranger moves into the neighborhood, the book club’s meetings turn into speculation about the newcomer. Patricia is initially attracted to him, but when some local children go missing, she starts to suspect the newcomer is involved. She begins her own investigation, assuming that he’s a Jeffrey Dahmer or Ted Bundy. What she uncovers is far more terrifying, and soon she–and her book club–are the only people standing between the monster they’ve invited into their homes and their unsuspecting community.

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I really liked this book and enjoyed how the southern women managed to harness their homemaking skills to take on a vampire. At the same time, the societal pressures upon them also make for some internal strife between the different women.

This vampire was slightly different than others that I’d read about in other fiction, but I like that in vampire fiction. It keeps me guessing about what the vampire can actually do and what his weaknesses are. Ultimately, this novel didn’t add anything revolutionary to the vampire fiction out there, but it was still an entertaining story. I’d consider picking up another book by this author sometime soon.

Have you read any books by Grady Hendrix? Which do you recommend? Let me know in the comments (above).

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