The Commercial Appeal - Go Memphis
Suburban housewives take on an immortal villain
In his latest horror novel, “The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires,” Grady Hendrix pits a group of suburban housewives against an immortal monster, and as he warns us in his author’s note, “It’s not a fair fight.” This surprising tale manages to upend expectations at every turn and defies the annoying stereotype that women after a certain age become invisible and insignificant.
The book club members of the Old Village in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, are anything but ordinary. Oh sure, they might look that way from the outside, warming up dinners and vacuuming curtains, but these are sharp, formidable women. Underestimate them at your peril.
Even before she’s attacked by a rabid elderly neighbor, former nurse turned full-time mom Patricia Campbell is struggling. She’s struggling to get her husband’s attention, to understand her teenage children, and to care for her dementia-addled mother-in-law. Hendrix shows the frustrations of middle-aged life, no blood or gore required. Without pandering, he manages to convey the challenges of keeping a household running, day after day, with little appreciation. But meeting a handsome, charming vampire definitely doesn’t make Patricia’s life easier.
At first, she’s happy to have a new face at her dinner table, especially one who distracts from her surly daughter and Nazi-obsessed son. But Patricia quickly becomes suspicious of their light-sensitive neighbor who leaves
At a glance ‘The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires’
By Grady Hendrix. Quick Books. 408 pages. $21.99.
dead bodies in his wake. Unfortunately, she’s the only one around who seems to care at first. Hendrix conveys the mental pain of being dismissed as paranoid. Patricia reads and re-reads “Helter Skelter” by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry about the Manson family, comforting herself with cult leader Charles Manson’s sentencing. “She needed to assure herself,” Hendrix writes, “that not all men got away with it, not every time.” Hendrix also captures the spirit of the #Metoo movement and its justified anger about the way powerful men can commit crimes with impunity if nobody believes their victims — and especially if a community stands to profit from looking away.
But Patricia’s troubles are nothing compared to the poor, Black community of Six Mile. In that part of town, a string of children’s deaths barely gets the attention of local police or newspapers. Families are left on their own, and mothers like Mrs. Greene take matters into their own hands, going so far as to send their kids away. As Mrs. Greene’s employer, Patricia is an unlikely ally, but soon the pair team up.
Throughout this novel, Hendrix emphasizes the many over the few. This is not a hero’s story, though we certainly root for Patricia from page one. No, if we learned anything from Bram Stoker’s Dracula, it’s that defeating an immortal cannot be done alone. Not only do Mrs. Greene and Patricia work together, but Patricia ropes in the members of her true crime-obsessed book club, laying out the case for them clue by clue. And yet at every turn, it seems like the villain will outsmart them. Hendrix is a master of suspense.
While the premise of this novel may sound like camp — and there’s definitely a healthy dose of humor in these pages — the violence is terrifying. Hendrix pulls off a seemingly impossible trick: writing about monsters and murders without losing the charm you’d expect from the title. “The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires” is a delight and not just for horror fans. It could be seen as a companion novel to his wildly popular “My Best Friend’s Exorcism,” which explores how teenagers might react to demonic possession.
Hendrix is also the author of “Horrorstör,” about a haunted Ikea, and “Paperbacks from Hell” (which won the Bram Stoker Award), a critical analysis of horror novels from the ’70s and ’80s. It’s fair to say that Hendrix has something of a reputation to uphold, and his latest offering does not disappoint. Perhaps because Hendrix is so well versed in his genre, he feels comfortable subverting expectations. This story escalates tension and violence without ever losing its heart. Ultimately, “The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires” is as much about the power of friendship as the danger of monsters.
For more local book coverage, please visit Chapter16.org, an online publication of Humanities Tennessee.
NEW YORK – At the 2020 Grammy Awards, John Legend excitedly walked around with “a special secret,” as he puts it: He had just finished recording a batch of songs and felt like his new album was nearly done.
And though he performed and won his 11th gramophone at the show, he productively used the week where most of the music industry flocks to Los Angeles to add new flavor to his album.
At the Grammys he met Koffee, who made history when she became the youngest artist to win the best reggae album Grammy, eventually collaborating with her on a song for “Bigger Love,” his seventh album out Friday. And a day before the awards show at the white-hot annual Roc Nation brunch, he sought out rapper Rapsody – who is signed to Jay-z’s company – and asked her to rap on one of his songs.
Legend said listening to Rapsody’s verse on “Remember Us” brings him to tears, especially when the skilled lyricist name-drops Kobe Bryant, who died on the day of the Grammys, and Nipsey Hussle, who Legend won his most recent Grammy with for their song “Higher.”
“It’s so epic. It makes me cry. I listen to it sometimes and it makes me tear up,” said Legend, who performed “Higher” at the Grammys in tribute to Hussle alongside DJ Khaled and others. “I remember how emotional I was the day of the Grammys when Kobe passed away. It was such a crazy time.”
Legend said Rapsody wrote two verses for his song, asking him which he preferred. “This was the one that just immediately hit me. I loved her referring to Kobe and Nipsey and Biggie and some of the other artists we lost, but also some artists that are still with us that made records that were important to us.”
Legend’s album also features collaborations with Jhené Aiko and Gary Clark Jr., while a pack of all-star producers and songwriters also help on the project, including Charlie Puth, Anderson Paak, Ryan Tedder, Ester Dean, Teddy Geiger, Tayla Parx and Raphael Saadiq, who executive produced the album.
John Legend
But Legend’s collaboration with Hussle is still getting love a year after its release. On Monday “Higher” earned two nominations at the BET Awards, including video of the year. The clip was filmed not long after Hussle died.
“What a video to go out on – in his neighborhood, elevated above the neighborhood, looking down on it,” Legend said. “He was so proud of his neighborhood and his community. He had invested so much in the community and done so much to bring hope and jobs and education to the community.”
“We made a record with Nipsey that will last forever,” he said.
Legend, 41, said the some of the songs on “Bigger Love” have a strong and resilient impact in a similar vein of “Higher.” Though he created the album before the coronavirus pandemic and the protests advocating for black lives that have erupted around the world, he said the songs still resonate.
“It wasn’t written in response to exactly what’s happening in this moment, but I feel like it could be a lift for people who are experiencing the uncertainty and the turmoil of this time,” he said. “Some of those songs feel more poignant now than they would have were we not going through these crises in America.”
Like the rest of the world, Legend has been homebound since the pandemic, which has slowed down some of his projects outside of music. “We produce a lot of shows that had to pause production,” said Legend, an EGOT holder who won his Emmy and Tony as a producer.
But he’s still getting major work done. He finished the mixing and mastering process of his album remotely, he filmed the rest of “The Voice” from his couch, and he taped the ABC variety special “John Legend and Family: A Bigger Love Father’s Day,” to premiere Sunday.
And thanks to Instagram Live, he’ll be able to go head-to-head with Alicia Keys in the latest “Verzuz” battle series.
“It’s really a celebration of music and our mutual love and respect for each other. I consider her my sister,” said Legend, who sang background vocals for Keys’ 2003 hit “You Don’t Know My Name” and opened for the songstress on his first major tour.
“We’re going to have fun and celebrate music, celebrate black music, celebrate Juneteenth together,” he added. “It is a battle, but it’s not.”