a child, as he remembered her "as a monster, and that's not her fault, it was a disease none of us understood." He thus created the character of Mrs. Mary, Patricia's mother-in-law, to "give her the hero moment she deserved, the one Alzheimer's robbed her of at the end of her life." Hendrix also chose to explore the relationships between white and black women in the South during the 1990s, as the lives of the two groups were interconnected. He had the vampire prey upon black children and adults as the vampire "assumes that the children of working class African American parents aren't valued. He doesn't look deeper and realize that in a lot of ways, at our best, moms care about kids no matter whose they are." Publication history The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires was first published in hardback and ebook format on April 7, 2020 through Quirk Books. It was accompanied by an audiobook adaptation narrated by Bahni Turpin and published by Blackstone Publishing. Reception Tor.com stated that The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires was "a brutal book", whose "happy ending comes at a high cost." The AV Club's AUX also reviewed the work, comparing it to "its undead antagonist: flashy and engaging in the action, but strangely hollow at its heart." Television series Television rights to The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires were optioned prior to the book's publication by Patrick Moran's PMK Productions. Hendrix and Brett Cohen will serve as executive producers. References External links 2020s horror novels Books by Grady Hendrix Quirk Books books