I love this book so much!! The whole trope of Desperate housewives meets 90’s horror, damn it’s one amazing book and I’m only chapter 11.
Spoiler:
1) I really hate Carter and the way he’s gaslighting Patricia
2) Miss Mary’s character is portrayed so vividly it’s pulling on my heart strings and I’m personally offended no one takes her cute little grandma problems seriously. Will someone listen to her, people!! She’s onto him!
by hasfeh
25 Comments
I read that book and hated it by the end!
Yeah I can really agree with point one. There is another book by Grady where, at least in first part, the men in the book really made me really aggravated and angry.
All of the men, not just Carter, in SBCGTSV though really stressed me out and upset me, and I audibly was shouting at them when reading at various parts through out the book.
I absolutely love how Hendrix can switch between comedic genius and disturbing, gross horror at the drop of a hat. I’ve only read two of his books (this one and My Best Friend’s Exorcism), but I cannot wait to read more.
My favourite Grady Hendrix book by far and it was my first one.
I feel like the book feels so wonderfully claustrophobic in terms of the lives led by the women in the book club which really just hammered it all home to me. There’s some genuinely terrifying scenes later in the book too and I believe I cried at certain parts too.
And I wanted to murder every male character which I think is entirely the point! I’d love to read it for the first time again, enjoy the journey!
This was an amazing book. I listened and the narration (by Bahni Turpin or Turner?) was just incredible.
I just finished his newest (How To Sell A Haunted House) and I also loved that. Now I am going to read his backlist.
Yes, author does a nice job of making us kind of hate her husband.
i love this book i am currently rereading it rn, grady hendrix is one of my fav authors!!!!!!
Ugh, I hated this book and it completely turned me off from Grady Hendrix lol
I neither loved nor hated this book but was impressed by the solution the book club managed. Yes, it is chock full of worthless men, child abuse, and sexual assault. Also some homicide and lots of blood. I would re-read it down the road.
I’m in. I can’t wait
The book was “meh” for me, but it reminded me why I hate how straight white men write women.
This was the first book of his I read, and I’m so glad I just gravitated toward it at the bookstore. I’ve loved all three of his I’ve read so far.
I think Hendrix is a smart and observant writer who has done his research. The book does a solid job of dramatizing the problems of white middle class women of a certain generation. The problem is that journalists, academics, and other writers are better at diagnosing these problems than discussing the various ways in which women come to terms with the issues over their lifetimes.
In my view, Hendrix struggles to write a believable Patricia who can “solve” her problems and come to terms with her past because he lacks the lived experience to understand what that looks like from inside. Instead, he’s obliged to rely solely on generic tropes that just didn’t work for me.
I finished the book several months ago, so it was fun to think about it with a bit of distance. Thanks!
Carter’s such a dick I hate him (complimentary to Hendrix) The gaslighting is a Grady Hendrix Signature. In his books, the monsters are scary, but other characters gaslighting the main character that the monsters aren’t monsters is what makes it *horror*.
I love this book to death, I recommend it and My Best Friend’s Exorcism to basically everybody who asks me for horror recs. (If you have the patience for it, it’s fun to read these two one after the other, in either order. He wrote the book club after exorcism, because the exorcism stars teenagers and therefore the parents are useless at best, so he thought it would be interesting to write a similar supernatural horror story where it’s the parent who’s the hero. They’re not directly related to each other but they both take place in the same hoity toity part of 80s Charleston.
YES!! Honestly I got so angry at the men in this book I had to stop listening (audiobook) for a day or so. I thought about just not finishing it but the book was just too good and too well written. I ended up really loving it!
I enjoyed this book immensely! One of the few books where I was very sure that the author is a woman and was surprised that he is not! (Gifted it to a friend and she felt the same way.)
Also I hated Carter with a passion and the 90s setting reminded me of Scream meets Interview with the vampire.
I just read that and absolutely loved it! Grady Hendrix is a new favorite of mine! Also finished How To Sell a Haunted House, and currently on Final Girl Support Group. I did have one or two small issues with it, but that wasn’t enough to kill my enjoyment. And I did wonder if the ending was gearing up towards a sequel…
I liked that book! My favourite Hendrix book (so far) is We Sold Our Souls – about a female-led heavy metal band being controlled by demonic forces. SO FUN
Omg I just finished reading this yesterday! I really enjoyed it, despite the gaslighting . Also I could’ve used a warning for some of the content
Absolutely loved this book, I really didn’t think it would be my cup of tea but the descriptions of the mental load of a wife/mother/carer of elderly really struck a chord with me.
The pacing of this book was so weird. Why spend so much time on build up and then do a huge time jump? The last few chapters of the book should’ve been at least half the book for it to be fun or interesting in the way the beginning presented the book to be.
That’s on my list
Came here to mention that this book put me off of any more of Hendrix’s books and I see I’m not alone.
Carter is a terrible person and at the start of the book I didn’t think he would turn out the way he did by the end. I enjoyed hating him though.
I loved this book. Hendrix writes some great mind cringing descriptions too.
I can’t get past the fact that Six Mile is nowhere near Charleston. A native south Carolinian should know this. But also maps exist. If you’re going to write about real places maybe you should double check your geography. I’m a 3rd of the way through the book and this glaring mistake has taken me completely out of the story.