Perfect Pandemic Reading: The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires

My reading these past weeks has been a struggle.  I have spurts of time where I can concentrate, so I've managed to get in a few great books, but much of the time I just don't feel like reading.

However, I ordered The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix from The Bookshelf Thomasville and despite the fact that this is not a book I would normally pick (vampires? no thanks!), I absolutely loved every page.  

I rarely share quotes from books, but this is the first paragraph from Chapter 1, and from this I was entirely sucked in:

"In 1988, George H. W. Bush  had just won the presidential election by inviting everyone to read his lips while Michael Dukakis lost it by riding in a tank.   Dr. Huxtable was America's dad, Kate and Allie were America's moms, The Golden Girls were America's grandmoms, McDonalds announced it was opening its first restaurant in the Soviet Union, everyone brought Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time and didn't read it, Phantom of the Opera opened on Broadway and Patricia Campbell got ready to die."

Patricia joins a book club with a group of other Southern suburban moms.  The literary selections they are being told to read don't excite any of them, so a different group forms.  Although they are a book club, they read true crime and love getting together to talk about these books.  

One night after a book club meeting, Patricia is busy taking out the trash when she is attacked by a neighbor who bites off her earlobe.  The attack is vicious, animal-like, and the neighbor ends up dying, although no one really understands why.  Patricia, being the good neighbor, heads over to give a casserole to this woman's great-nephew, James, who had moved in to help his great-aunt.  A few bizarre events occur during their first meeting, but after Patricia gets to know James, she is charmed by him.

Yet, something isn't quite right.  Patricia has read enough true crime books to know that her suspicions should be taken seriously, but is finding it hard to get anyone to believe her.  And then more horrifying things occur.  

This book was an absolute delight to curl up with.  I would tell anyone who thinks this book is not for them, to give it a try.  It was such a fun read. I loved the book club premise and the various book titles that were thrown in. I loved the 90s setting. I loved the suspense that had me turning pages as quickly as I could. This is a story I won't forget anytime soon, and will likely be one of the more unique books I read in 2020.  I'm totally recommending this to everyone I know and will be purchasing this for my public library as well.