The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires
Patricia Campbell's life in a quiet 1990s suburb of Charleston, South Carolina, has narrowed to carpools, casseroles, and caring for her difficult mother-in-law. Her one real pleasure is a book club of sharp-tongued Southern women who skip the literary titles in favor of lurid true crime. Then a charming, mysterious newcomer named James Harris moves into the neighborhood, and Patricia — starved for something of her own — finds herself drawn to him.
But children on the wrong side of town are dying, adults are behaving strangely, and the more Patricia learns about James, the more certain she becomes that something is deeply, monstrously wrong. The problem is that no one will believe her: not her doctor husband, not the police, not the neighbors she's spent her life pleasing. And she has already invited him in.
Grady Hendrix's The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires is a genuinely frightening horror novel wrapped around a sly satire of Southern gentility, class, and the way society dismisses middle-aged women. Bloody, funny, and surprisingly moving, it is ultimately a story about ordinary housewives who decide to fight back.
A former nurse turned housewife in the Old Village, and the only adult who takes the disappearances seriously.
The charming newcomer who moves into the neighbourhood, named for the demon lover of the old folk ballad.
Patricia's teenage daughter.
Patricia's husband, a psychiatrist more concerned with his standing than with what his wife is telling him.
The book club member who steered the group away from literary novels and toward true crime.
It functions as a spiritual sequel to My Best Friend's Exorcism, as both stories are set in the same neighborhood of Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, though they feature different primary casts and take place several years apart.
While a television series adaptation was previously in development at HBO with Danny McBride and Edi Patterson attached, the project has faced significant delays and its current status remains uncertain.
The author originally drafted versions of the book where the club read classic literature, but he eventually pivoted to true crime after realizing it would be more fun for the characters, despite his own initial personal prejudice against the genre.