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 blood-sucking fiend.
Patricia Campbell had always planned for a big life, but after giving up her career as a nurse to marry an ambitious doctor and become a mother, Patricia's life has never felt smaller. The days are long, her kids are ungrateful, her husband is distant, and her to-do list is never really done. The one thing she has to look forward to is her book club, a group of Charleston mothers united only by their love for true-crime and suspenseful fiction. In these meetings, they're more likely to discuss the FBI's recent siege of Waco as much as the ups and downs of marriage and motherhood.
But when an artistic and sensitive stranger moves into the neighborhood, the book club's meetings turn into speculation about the newcomer. Patricia is initially attracted to him, but when some local children go missing, she starts to suspect the newcomer is involved. She begins her own investigation, assuming that he's a Jeffrey Dahmer or Ted Bundy. What she uncovers is far more terrifying, and soon she--and her book club--are the only people standing between the monster they've invited into their homes and their unsuspecting community.
I've always been a big supporter of Quirk Books' lineup. From their monster mashups (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Android Karenina, etc.) to their more serious but still humorous fair (Miss Peregrine, The Con Artist, & The Obama/Biden Mysteries) I just love their commitment to offering the quirky. So when I saw their latest publication on Facebook, I knew I had to check it out ASAP. Unfortunately this probably wasn't the best time for me to read it.
First off, I feel like I need to go over this book's triggers...and boy does it have a lot: rape, suicide, gaslighting, dementia, body mutilation, and butchering. There are also fairly graphic scenes featuring rats and bugs, as well as a few deaths of children and pets. Then again, I don't read much horror/thriller material, so maybe triggers like these are just a part of the typical experience for the genre? I'm currently dealing with the steady decline of my grandmother who also suffers from dementia, so there were parts of this book that reduced me to tears even though they weren't all that emotional or graphic (comparatively speaking, at least). Plus, it being Quirk, I didn't expect the horror to be as horrific as it turned out to be...
But more than tears, my main emotion while reading seemed to be fury. I mentioned gaslighting before, and boy does the vampire use it a lot against the main character, Patricia. But that's to be expected of the villain trying to keep his cover, so the vampire wasn't my problem; the book club's husbands were. I get that the main character has to go through conflict and opposition over the course of a story to make their (presumed) victory more satisfying, but my god, after all the psychological trauma her husband managed to heap on her I was about ready to drain his blood myself. I read so many YA protagonists who feel isolated and resigned to secrecy, I didn't expect a married woman to have the same feelings thrust upon her. And by her own husband, no less.
So you might gather that sexism and misogyny play a large role in this story, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. This story explores a lot of themes relating to sex, race, class, morality, psychology, and motherhood. I normally like to tag books with "Girl Power" that feature empowered female characters, whether they hold the position of narrator, protagonist, antagonist, or support. This time the women didn't feel as much empowered as they were the last resort, doing what had to be done because no one else would.
The characters were fleshed-out and gripping. Patricia goes through a lot of psychological ups and downs, whether it be with the vampire, her family, or her book club friends, and I was hooked. She just wants the best for everyone and internalizes blame when things don't turn out right—relatable much? The other book club gals get pieces here and there, enough to know their motivations when they step up or let you down. The vampire was especially impressive with his charm, intelligence, and cunning, though there were a couple decisions I look back on and wonder about (like what the heck did he do to Mrs. Savage, and why?). Still, no one seemed like a caricature, which made everything more believable.
For the most part the book as a whole seemed pretty well set in reality or at least believability, with the paranormal elements being unimaginable until proven true. Like I said, the characters were relatable or driven by clear motivations, and with the book club's infatuation with true crime books, logic played a huge role in most of the story. However, there were a couple things that struck me as plot convenience, which was disappointing after so much effort had been made to weave a believable series of events.
Firstly, why wasn't the (vampire) nephew investigated for the horrible state Mrs. Savage was in when she was admitted to the hospital?
“She was suffering from malnutrition, she was dehydrated, and she was covered with infected cuts and sores. Ben said the doctors were surprised she lasted this long. He even said”—and here Grace lowered her voice—“that she had track marks on her inner thigh. She’d probably been injecting something for the pain. I’m sure the family doesn’t want anyone to know about that.” (p. 61)The story makes sure to focus on police and medical proceedings, yet no one thought to investigate further into a malnourished, dehydrated, drug-using senior who was supposedly being cared for? Even if she had no other family/friends to file charges, you'd think some investigation would have been done, right? Or maybe I'm too close to my own grandmother's medical experiences to let that mistreatment pass...
Secondly, Patricia is a former nurse, so you would assume she would intrinsically know things weren't right when she gave a dead body CPR and it suddenly started walking and talking normally (if agitatedly).
The man lying on the bed was dead.She isn't even at the point where the vampire or others are gaslighting her, she's just telling herself she must have mistaken not feeling any pulse or breath coming into her own mouth during five breaths of CPR. I get that vampires or zombies aren't high on normal people's lists of probable maladies, but why wouldn't you at least have him admitted to the hospital? You are/were a nurse, you shouldn't be an idiot about pulse and breathing!
[...] She forced herself to step all the way into the room, put the casserole dish on the end of the bed, and took his wrist. His skin felt cool. He had no pulse.
[...] She shook his shoulder, just in case.
“Sir?” she croaked. “Sir?”
His body barely moved beneath her hand. She held the back of her forefinger under his nostrils: nothing. Her nursing instincts took over.
She used one hand to pull his chin down, and the other to pull his upper lip back. She felt inside his mouth with one finger. His tongue felt dry. Nothing obstructed his airway. Patricia leaned over his face and realized, with a tickling in the veins on the inside of her elbows, this was the closest she’d been to a man who wasn’t her husband in nineteen years. Then her dry lips pressed against his chapped ones and formed a seal. She pinched his nose shut and blew three strong breaths into his windpipe. Then she performed three strong chest compressions.
Nothing. She leaned down for a second attempt, made the seal with their lips, and blew into his mouth, once, twice, then her trachea vibrated backward as air blasted down her throat. (pp. 66-67).
I feel like I've been a bit hard on this book, so I want to emphasize that I really did like it. I enjoyed the 90's setting, giving me a bit of nostalgia for my childhood. I found the story compelling and hard to put down. I really did think everything was crafted well, I just wasn't expecting that much horror with that little humor. Most of what I've read from Quirk has made sure to have a lot of tongue-in-cheekiness, even when the deaths are piling up. This book, however, didn't pull its punches, especially when it came to psychological terror and trauma, and I wasn't in a good place to be immersed in that. I guess it says something about the writing that once I started I couldn't put it down, even if I really, really wanted to at times.
Ultimately, I appreciate this book for what it is, I just picked a bad time to read it. I'd recommend it to those who enjoy horror or thriller elements, or are looking for a vampire read without the fluff or sparkles. Great pacing, clear character motivations, a cunning villain and chilling consequences for crossing him combine to make a fascinating, modern(ish) tale of monsters vs mothers. Now I just need to find a nice, happy read to catch my breath again...
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