Reading: THE SOUTHERN BOOK CLUB'S GUIDE TO SLAYING VAMPIRES - Grady Hendrix

Grady Hendrix has been on my radar for awhile - in fact, I think I have three of his books on my Kindle now - but between this brilliant title and the "Steel Magnolias meets Dracula" (which, actually, is loosely accurate) tagline, this seemed THE place to start. When you begin, the tone of this book immediately comes off very retro - old-school 1950's - but the novel is set in present day, and I soon realized the "bygone-era" feel of the book could be attributed to the story being set in/near Charleston, South Carolina, where a group of friends and bored housewives/mothers - "genteel southern ladies" - have formed a sort of underground book club where they read virtually nothing but true crime. Patricia Campbell, mother of a teen and pre-teen and wife to a workaholic, is maybe the most unassuming of the ladies; she spends her days taking care of her senile mother-in-law, who lives with them, and pretty much being ignored by her family. Longing for something more, some kind of real adventure in her humdrum upscale suburban life, Patricia gets more than her wish when one night while taking out the trash she is viciously attacked by an elderly neighbor in her own yard, the old woman seemingly gone insane or rabid to the point she even bites off part of Patricia's ear. Patricia survives, but the neighbor dies days later in the hospital - and soon after Patricia meets and becomes friends with her attacker's live-in nephew, James Harris, a handsome, well-built and enigmatic man with all his southern manners in place; indeed, he won't even enter Patricia's home for the first time until formally invited in. At first intrigued by the attention and adventure James brings to her life, as the man also ingratiates himself into the lives of her family and friends, after a couple of disturbing incidents Patricia starts piecing together clues that make her wonder if James is really the person her claims to be - or if, indeed, he may even be a person at all. And when she learns that children from the poorer side of town are starting to act strangely - even committing suicide after severe behavior changes - Patricia sets out to prove James Harris is behind the deaths, even at the risk of her own. The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires is a slow burn at first, Hendrix rightly setting up both characters and story so well, the reader is fully hooked into both narrative and people by the time the crazy-grisly set pieces begin. For sure, the book is not for the fainthearted; for those who can't handle very descriptive scenes of horror. If you can? WOW, what a roller-coaster ride this puppy is, the book going off on a few unexpected paths, making the bad guy seem unstoppable against this group of "genteel southern ladies" - who must somehow come together and be anything but. Visceral, emotional, riveting, darkly funny, bloody as heck, superbly-written, and - as of this writing - my favorite read of 2020.  5/5 stars