{"id":112557,"date":"2020-06-03T15:39:54","date_gmt":"2020-06-03T14:39:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/?p=112557"},"modified":"2023-03-15T10:30:46","modified_gmt":"2023-03-15T10:30:46","slug":"the-southern-book-clubs-guide-to-slaying-vampires-review-no-books-harmed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/reviews\/the-southern-book-clubs-guide-to-slaying-vampires-review-no-books-harmed\/","title":{"rendered":"The Southern Book Club&#8217;s Guide To Slaying Vampires review: No books harmed!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">When you hear<\/span> \u201cvampire slayer\u201d, you probably think of a <span class=\"s2\">certain blonde teenager. But what the <\/span>women of the <em><strong>Southern Book Club<\/strong><\/em> have in common with Buffy \u2013 aside from their bloodsucker problem \u2013 is that they\u2019re living in the Nineties.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">In South Carolina suburbia, a <span class=\"s2\">group of bored housewives bond over a shared love of the macabre. They\u2019re <\/span>fascinated by murderers, real and fictional. When a stranger moves into their manicured neighbourhood, Patricia, Grace, Kitty, Maryellen and Slick are charmed and welcoming. <span class=\"s2\">Until children start going missing. Then, <\/span>they use their true crime expertise to fight a threat no-one else notices\u2026<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">The choice of protagonists is inspired: the skills that make these stay-at-home mums great at taking care of their households are invaluable when facing the undead.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Hendrix doesn\u2019t shy away from exploring the racism and classism these women have absorbed throughout their privileged lives.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">Invoking Buffy seems appropriate, as the cheerleader with a stake in her hand was a deliberate attempt by Joss Whedon to upend horror clich\u00e9s. Here, Hendrix does the same for middle-aged homemakers, asking his readers to re-evaluate their assumptions about these women.<\/p>\n<p>Smart, scary, and sympathetic, without skimping on horror, this is a novel any book club should savour.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/gp\/product\/1683691458\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1634&amp;creative=6738&amp;creativeASIN=1683691458&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=scifinow01-21&amp;linkId=7a282814e8a18f7286b9b58daa34dc5c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Southern Book Club&#8217;s Guide To Slaying Vampires<\/a> is available now from Quirk Books.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"entry-content \">\n<p class=\"p2\" style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Move over Buffy, the housewives are on the case. Here&#8217;s our review of Grady Hendrix&#8217;s The Southern Book Club&#8217;s Guide To Slaying Vampires.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52,"featured_media":112560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"quote","meta":{"MSN_Categories":"Uncategorized","MSN_Publish_Option":false,"MSN_Is_Local_News":false,"MSN_Is_AIAC_Included":"Empty","MSN_Location":"[]","MSN_Add_Feature_Img_On_Top_Of_Post":false,"MSN_Has_Custom_Author":false,"MSN_Custom_Author":"","MSN_Has_Custom_Canonical_Url":false,"MSN_Custom_Canonical_Url":""},"categories":[1624,8],"tags":[5126,6845],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Souther-Book-Club-cover.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112557"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/52"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112557"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":127319,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112557\/revisions\/127319"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}