Book Club Night Kit

The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires

Grady Hendrix

Cozy night

A 1990s Charleston-area book club of housewives notices something very wrong about the charming new man in their neighborhood, and their casserole-dish friendship turns out to be the sharpest weapon they have. It is funny, gory, deeply nostalgic, and secretly a love letter to the unpaid labor of women.

Bring a Casserole. We Have Business to Discuss.

Come for chicken and rice, sweet tea, and a warm chair while we talk about the Charleston housewives who noticed something wrong with the new neighbor. Comfort food, low pressure, mild screaming optional.

Reading level: Easy

Best for: A club that likes a little bite with its comfort read and never minds laughing at the scary parts

Discussion

Warm-up

1.Before we say a word about the book, tell us what snack or drink you found yourself reaching for while reading it, and whether that was comfort or nerves.
2.Patricia's book club argues about what they are willing to read together. What is the book our club picked that you were quietly dreading and ended up loving?

Digging in

1.This book is soaked in 1990s Southern domestic life (the casseroles, the good dishes, the neighborhood watchfulness). Which small detail pulled up a real memory of your own kitchen or your mother's?
2.There is a particular ache in being told you are imagining things. When in the book did you feel that most in your own chest, and did you want to hug Patricia or shake her?
3.The women's friendship is built out of very ordinary things: showing up, bringing food, sitting through a meeting. Who in your life has quietly done that for you, and did this book make you want to call them?
4.Hendrix writes housework and caretaking as real, exhausting labor. Did the book make you feel seen, tired, tender, or all three, and where exactly did that land?

Going deep

1.Without giving anything away, this story asks what a person is willing to lose to be believed. Was there a moment where you thought, gently, that you would have stopped, and what does that tell you about your own limits?
2.By the last stretch of the book, the women's love for each other has been tested pretty thoroughly. What did you come away believing about what friendship actually costs, and did that comfort you or unsettle you?

On the table & to sip

To eat

Bookclub chicken and rice casserole (with the crushed cracker top)

The novel runs on casseroles carried to neighbors' doors. Make it in one dish the night before, warm it up, and let people eat it off their laps.

Pimento cheese and buttered white bread finger sandwiches

Pure 1990s Charleston hostess food. No cooking, endlessly nibbleable, and exactly what these women would set out on a good platter.

Warm banana pudding with vanilla wafers

Homey, forgiving, best served in mugs. A soft landing after a book that gets gnarly, and it tastes like somebody's grandmother forgave you.

To sip

Front porch sweet tea with mint and lemon (no alcohol)

Nonnegotiable Southern hospitality in a glass. Brew a big pitcher, keep it on the counter, no effort at all.

Peach bourbon iced tea punch

Sweet tea with a slow Carolina drawl of bourbon and peach. Mix one pitcher and let guests pour their own.

Hot spiced apple cider (no alcohol)

For the shivery chapters. A pot on low all night makes the whole house smell like a safe place to discuss vampires.