The Southern Book Club Guide to Slaying Vampires (2020) by Grady Hendrix

1,001 Novels: A Library of America

 The Southern Book Club Guide to Slaying Vampires (2020)

 by Grady Hendrix 

Mount Pleasant, South Carolina

South Carolina: 7/14

  I hadn't heard of author Grady Hendrix before I read his book so I didn't know until after that Hendrix is a writer of what you might call horror-comedy.   Based on the title and the opening chapter I had assumed this was going to be some kind of cozy mystery/comic novel cross-over but as it turns out the horror is taken quite seriously and as I progressed to the business end of the vampire hunting there were several truly horrific scenes:  An old woman eaten alive by rats,  a book club member raped by the suspected vampire and a method of vampire feeding that involve suckling on to the inner thigh of the victim.   These Charlestonians aren't part of the planter aristocracy or the South of Broad professional set, rather they are a bunch of housewives in the traditional sense of that word- five women who do  not work outside of the home and have dedicated their lives to raiding children and taking care of their thankless husbands.

 The issue is, of course, that no one takes their warnings seriously forcing them into a DIY vampire hunt.   The South Carolina stuff is pretty muted- it's clear from the accents of the characters that this book takes place somewhere in the suburban south, but it could have been anywhere.