The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires

Bored and neglected, 90's Southern suburban housewife Patricia Cambell has little in her life that truly brings her joy. Her days are filled with caring for a senile mother-in-law, a husband who spends much of his time working and children who are nearly grown. Her sole escape is her book club, which has recently splintered into a new group that focuses on true crime. Patricia's life is forever changed when she's attacked by an elderly neighbor and meets James Harris, who is both handsome and sophisticated. She finds herself drawn to him and his charming ways, however when black children start disappearing in a neighboring town Patricia begins to suspect that James is the culprit. The police refuse to take the disappearances seriously, causing Patricia and the book club to start investigating themselves. As a result, they discover not only supernatural evil but also the systematic racism and "misogyny, rage, anger, and the indignities that women had to endure in order to survive, to be respectable, to be considered proper women."[1]

When developing the book Hendrix chose to set it in his childhood home town of Charleston and drew upon some of his personal experiences. His own grandmother had dementia, which frightened Hendrix as a child, as he remembered her "as a monster, and that's not her fault, it was a disease none of us understood."[2] He thus created the character of Mrs. Mary, Patricia's mother-in-law, to "give her the hero moment she deserved, the one Alzheimer's robbed her of at the end of her life."[2] Hendrix also chose to explore the relationships between white and black women in the South during the 1990s, as the lives of the two groups were interconnected. He had the vampire prey upon black children and adults as he "assumes that the children of working class African American parents aren't valued. He doesn't look deeper and realize that in a lot of ways, at our best, moms care about kids no matter whose they are."[2]

The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires was first published in hardback and ebook format on April 7, 2020 through Quirk Books.[3] It was accompanied by an audiobook adaptation narrated by Bahni Turpin and published by Blackstone Publishing.[4]

Tor.com reviewed The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires, stating that "It’s a brutal book, and the happy ending comes at a high cost. Book Club lures you in with the bucolic setting, charming women, and Southern affect, but when it turns, it does a hairpin one-eighty, goes and spins sedys in the police parking lot while screaming obscenities, then turns around and delivers the vigilante-style vindication that we—and Patricia—so desperately deserve."[1] The AV Club's AUX also reviewed the work, writing that " The gimcrack pleasures of Slaying Vampires are like its undead antagonist: flashy and engaging in the action, but strangely hollow at its heart."[5]

Television rights to The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires were optioned prior to the book's publication by Patrick Moran's PMK Productions.[6] Hendrix and Brett Cohen will serve as executive producers.[7]

• Official website