as a preview, here’s a (relatively) cute version of aural invasion. it’s cute if you think, like i did at first, that it’s a ring-tailed lemur in some sort of cave but then OH NOOOOO!

The novel is a charming testament to friendships and life’s imperfections, with dashes of rot and savagery to earn its keep in horror literature….It’s a rollercoaster [that]lands as a vampire story concreted in vileness and Southern charm.”— Fangoria

Ain't Too Proud to Beg: When James realizes that the Book Club really is going to dismember him, he starts trying to get them to let him go by arguing that his existence is a miracle and offering them the secret to his immortality. They don't listen to him.

As local children start disappearing, rumors of a Boogie Man luring them into the woods begin to surface. Delightful read that reads like Dracula set in the ’90s American South….Perfect for fans of horror and real-life crime alike.”— Good Housekeeping The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires" by Grady Hendrix is a creative mix of Horror and Southern Fiction!Yeah, that rings a bell. I did the stay-at-home mom thing for a couple of decades, so there's another thing we have in common. The current discussion is about Patricia's newest neighbor, James Harris. He's handsome, charismatic and a bit mysterious. Patricia thinks he might be too mysterious. Something just doesn't ring true with James. Wasn't Ted Bundy handsome, charismatic and mysterious? So how does what seems like a stereotyped, sexist story about southern woman in a book club turn into a skin-crawling, blood soaking story? Then turn into a refreshing, powering, brilliantly houmous story with meaningful character development. Well, Grady Hendrix does some mightly fine footwork here, and I couldn't help but analyze this story. So anyway, I didn't like this book. I'm in the minority, so maybe there really is something here I missed... or maybe that pervasive sense of complacency is more powerful that I had imagined.

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.The novel ends with an epilogue in which a newsletter from Marjorie Fretwell sums up the 1999 book club’s year and tells them she is looking forward to the new millennium. This one is not my normal story and one that was not on my radar to read, but after seeing how much fun some TS were having in a group read, that fear of missing out on a fun discussion had me joining in. That overthinker in me almost ruined the story, and that over-analyzer saved it for me along with my curiosity. I struggled at first with a few of those the gory scenes and with a darkly disturbing part to the story and almost did not finish, but I had to know why so many readers loved this one. Once the story hit that major turning point, everything started to become clear to me as to why!