The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires: A Novel

Steel Magnolias meets Dracula in this New York Times best-selling horror novel about a women's book club that must do battle with a mysterious newcomer to their small Southern town.

“This funny and fresh take on a classic tale manages to comment on gender roles, racial disparities, and white privilege all while creeping me all the way out. So good.”—Zakiya Dalila Harris, author of The Other Black Girl

Patricia Campbell’s life has never felt smaller. Her husband is a workaholic, her teenage kids have their own lives, her senile mother-in-law needs constant care, and she’s always a step behind on her endless to-do list. The only thing keeping her sane is her book club, a close-knit group of Charleston women united by their love of true crime. At these meetings they’re as likely to talk about the Manson family as they are about their own families.

One evening after book club, Patricia is viciously attacked by an elderly neighbor, bringing the neighbor's handsome nephew, James Harris, into her life. James is well traveled and well read, and he makes Patricia feel things she hasn’t felt in years. But when children on the other side of town go missing, their deaths written off by local police, Patricia has reason to believe James Harris is more of a Bundy than a Brad Pitt. The real problem? James is a monster of a different kind—and Patricia has already invited him in.

Little by little, James will insinuate himself into Patricia’s life and try to take everything she took for granted—including the book club—but she won’t surrender without a fight in this blood-soaked tale of neighborly kindness gone wrong.

• Steel Magnolias meets Dracula in this darkly funny Southern gothic horror novel
• Perfect for fans of horror with social commentary, thriller readers, and book clubs
• Blends true-crime obsession, supernatural mystery, and feminist themes

Join the book club—but don’t invite the wrong neighbor inside.

Grady Hendrix is an award-winning novelist and screenwriter living in New York City. He is the author of several New York Times best sellers including How to Sell a Haunted House, The Final Girl Support Group, The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, and many more. His books have been translated into more than twenty languages and sold over two million copies. He also writes nonfiction, and his history of the horror paperback boom of the seventies and eighties, Paperbacks from Hell, won the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Nonfiction.