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Loooved it🙌 This was a solid 4.5 but rounded up because I’m still thinking about how good it was and it definitely satisfied everything I needed in a vampire horror novel! And pitting a mom against a vampire.. perfection!

IMPORTANT NOTE: this is not light or fluffy, this is gory horror. There are too many triggering subjects to list so approach this warned, if horror is not your genre this is probably not the one to dip your toe in the water with! For me, I went in with very little information about what this would be about and I was picturing it to be much lighter and perhaps comical, it was definitely not (although I did laugh out loud quite a few times at the momisms) all of which thrilled me but I think it’s fair warning to know that going in.

I have some friends that have re-read their favourite Stephen King books from childhood and been a bit disappointed by how they read today and this book is better than what I would want those to read like. Grady Hendrix himself actually did do a Stephen King reread blog. This was updated vampires, suburbia, families, americana, kitch, satirical stereotypes, rats, thick gooey blood, creepy vans and cockroaches🪳and it was wonderful!

This is a coming of age novel for Patricia the housewife, set in the 80s, as she takes on the questionable new neighbour across the street while trying to get her husband and her book club of girlfriends on her side to protect her children.

I have always loved that vampire novels are historically cultural representations of the times and this one did not disappoint for me, there were a lot of currents running through the story that were very topical, feminism, spousal controlling relationships, race, children’s welfare and more. I have since read a lot of reviews where people were upset by the stereotypical archetype portrayal of the characters and I was honestly surprised because that really was the point, you should be upset by not only what the vampire is doing but what people of the town are doing to each other.

Also the relationship between the bookclub friends was so honest because it wasn’t all rah-rah, it was very real. Women aren’t one connected group consciousness. There were so many moments throughout where I couldn’t believe the direction Patricia took with her life and her family but I loved reading every minute!

There were also moments of pure suburbia normality, football games and potlucks, juxtaposed with moments of pure heart pounding terror (One of which happened right as I was trying to fall asleep and subsequently stayed up reading far too late because I could not put this one down)

There were too many great quotes to list! I loved his writing style!

If you like a great story with great characters in the horror genre and dont avoid very triggering subjects and gore, I would +++ recommend that you find out how this southern book club would guide you 🩸🔪