The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires is an audiobook by Grady Hendrix, narrated by Bahni Turpin. The unabridged Audible edition runs 13 hrs 49 mins.
Publisher’s Summary
Fried Green Tomatoes and Steel Magnolias meet Dracula in this Southern-flavored supernatural thriller set in the ’90s about a women’s book club that must protect its suburban community from a mysterious and handsome stranger who turns out to be a real monster.
Patricia Campbell’s life has never felt smaller. Her ambitious husband is too busy to give her a goodbye kiss in the morning, her kids have their own lives, her senile mother-in-law needs constant care, and she’s always a step behind on thank-you notes and her endless list of chores. The one thing she has to look forward to is her book club, a close-knit group of Charleston women united by their love of true crime and paperback fiction. At these meetings they’re as likely to talk about the Manson family as they are marriage, motherhood, and neighborhood gossip.
This predictable pattern is upended when Patricia meets James Harris, a handsome stranger who moves into the neighborhood to take care of his elderly aunt and ends up joining the book club. James is sensitive and well-read, and he makes Patricia feel things she hasn’t felt in 20 years. But there’s something off about him. He doesn’t have a bank account, he doesn’t like going out during the day, and Patricia’s mother-in-law insists that she knew him when she was a girl, an impossibility.
When local children go missing, Patricia and the book club members start to suspect James is more of a Bundy than a Beatnik, but no one outside of the book club believes them. Have they read too many true crime books, or have they invited a real monster into their homes?
Audiobook Details
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 13 hrs 49 mins
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Release year: 2020
- Audible category: Literature & Fiction / Horror / Literature & Fiction
Listener Ratings
The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires holds an average listener rating of 4.3/5 from 9611 Audible ratings.
On Audible, ratings for this title break down into narration performance and story separately:
- Performance (narration): 4.7/5
- Story: 4.2/5
- 5-star ratings: 57% of all ratings
What Audible Listeners Are Saying
5/5 stars — “I’ve been waiting for this kind of escape”
first off, I loved the voice of the narrator on this book. most of the time I usually just get used to them, but she was wonderful to listen to. comfortable and warm, she made it easy to sink into the story.
I wasn’t sure if I would like the book but after reading the reviews and listening to the sample I decided to take the chance. I’m very glad I did. it’s rare to find a audio book that can entrench me in its story the way reading can. I didn’t always like the characters and at times I’m so frustrated at their behavior or alternately afraid for them…but that’s exactly what I wanted because it made me feel something as if they were real and I could talk some sense into them. I found myself carving out the time to listen instead of using it during time I had to fill.— KLM, Audible listener
4/5 stars — “A vampire needs slaying”
I did not know what to expect and when it started with a bunch of women in a book club, and Patricia going on with her life, and her MIL with dementia, and, yes then came the punch. A stranger moves to town. The book changed tone, got darker and it got me hooked.Patricia likes her new neighbor, until doubt creeps in. Children are in trouble. Does her new neighbor have something to do with it? Oh and then the darkness started and I was all what is happening? It got me, it really got me.
So it’s like horror thriller? Whatever it is it was good.
Patricia and her book club aren’t exactly kick-ass, or they do not always have each other’s back either. But hey I get it, when Patricia starts talking about her theories, and everyone else is all what are you saying`?! Well, I get how people would not believe things and how she would stop believing herself.
After that rather what is happening and slow start it got really good. It is certainly not your normal type of vampire book. It is horror, it is drama, it is a lot more.
I do want to try more from this author, since he does have that "Ikea" book. And the audio was a perfect format for it.
I have not tried this narrator before but she was good. Distinct voices. Great in tone and acting. She was everyone and really brought the thriller into it.
— Blodeuedd, Audible listener
5/5 stars — “Wow”
Very different and fun! A nice break.
Kept me locked in! Would definitely recommend to others.— Megan, Audible listener
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