The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires

This is our Bad on Paper May book club pick and I’m so excited to talk about it! The fact that it was a book club, set in Charleston, involving vampires and murder was enough for me but my mom also really loved it and my mom has the best taste in books so I knew it was a must-read. It’s addicting – once you start it, you won’t want to put it down. It’s also GRUESOME… more of a horror novel (haven’t read many of those) than a thriller or mystery. This isn’t a spoiler but there is a scene involving rats and another involving cockroaches and my skin crawls just thinking about both! Eeesh. But I digress. The book centers around Patricia Campbell, a lonely housewife and mother. She joins a book club, making a close knit group of Charleston women. One night she’s viciously attacked by her elderly neighbor, which ends up bringing the neighbor’s charming, well-traveled niece James into her life. But James is not who everyone thinks he is (or maybe he is… I don’t want to give it away!) Patricia finds herself convinced that James is actually a vampire. Of course, everyone around her thinks she’s insane for thinking this. As Patricia and her friends watch children from the neighboring town vanish, they know something is not right.