The Southern Book Club’s Guide To Slaying Vampires goes to Amazon

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

I have yet to read a novel written by Grady Hendrix, but it certainly seems like it would be fun to dig into his work. His books include Horrorstör, which is about a haunted furniture store and is presented as if it's a glossy catalog; My Best Friend's Exorcism, which has an old VHS style cover; and the heavy metal horror story We Sold Our Souls, with a cover reminiscent of Rolling Stone magazine. Hendrix has also written the screenplays for the films MOHAWK and SATANIC PANIC.

Hendrix's next novel is The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires, and even though it's not set to reach store shelves until April 7th (you can pre-order a copy HERE), the adaptation rights have already been at the center of a ten-buyer bidding war. PKM Productions, which has a deal with Amazon Studios, was the winning bidder.

Described as "FRIED GREEN TOMATOES and STEEL MAGNOLIAS meet DRACULA", The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires is set in 1990s Charleston, South Carolina and tells the following story: 

Patricia Campbell’s life has never felt smaller. Her ambitious husband is too busy to kiss her good-bye in the morning, her kids are wrapped up in their own lives, and she’s always a step behind on thank-you notes and endless chores. The one thing she has to look forward to is her book club, a close-knit group of Charleston women united by their love of true crime and suspenseful fiction.

This predictable pattern is upended when Patricia is viciously attacked by an elderly neighbor, bringing the neighbor's handsome relative, James Harris, into her life. Sensitive and well-read, James makes Patricia feel things she hasn’t felt in twenty years. But there’s something… off… and then Patricia’s senile mother-in-law insists she knew him back when she was a girl.

When local children go missing, Patricia has reason to believe that James may be more Bundy than Beatnik. But once she and the book club members investigate further, the true monster emerges — and he’s far more terrifying than any serial killer they've ever read about.

These events occur in the same neighborhood My Best Friend's Exorcism happened in, which is also the neighborhood Hendrix grew up in. He says Southern Book Club is 

a power ballad ode to the moms I grew up around, who seemed like wine-drinking, book-reading powderpuffs but who dealt with the kind of darkness on a regular basis that would make Jack Reacher cry."

The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires is being published by Quirk Books. Quirk's President Brett Cohen said, 

Quirk is proud to publish The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires as a fun and unique entry into the horror category. And, we’re excited to partner with Patrick (Moran of PKM Productions) and the Amazon team to interpret Grady’s vision for a streaming television audience."

Hendrix and Cohen will both serve as executive producers on the adaptation.