The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires

Handsome James Harris uses his charisma and charm to gain the trust and respect of the affluent white families in the Old Village neighborhood in Mt. Pleasant. A skilled con man, James is built on the archetype of the carpetbagger—a Northerner who takes advantage of Southern hospitality to defraud. He quickly worms his way into their pocketbooks, taking advantage of their greed and passive racism to get them to invest in Gracious Cay, a gated community he is developing in Six Mile, a historically Black area of town. James is shifty and inconsistent, but he fits so well into the old boys’ network that none of the men gives his obfuscations a second thought. In fact, he is honest about his manipulations, explaining that he just wants to “fit in better with the neighborhood” (214)—a flattering sentiment that pushes away closer scrutiny.

A complex antagonist, James is sometimes portrayed as a sympathetic character He spends time with Patricia and her family, listening to her and connecting with her in ways that her husband never does. He bonds with Patricia’s rebellious son Blue, again supplanting Carter. However, Hendrix never lets us forget that he is a monster. He uses the information he gathers pretending to be a concerned friend and neighbor to time and again turns the tables on Patricia: He evades being questioned by the police about Destiny Taylor by suggesting that Patricia is hysterical; and later, he convinces Patricia that he hasn’t been raping Korey but instead having a consensual relationship with the teen girl. 

While he has centuries of knowledge and supernatural powers, James Harris eventually becomes a caricature of misogyny, proudly rambling about how wise and powerful he is even as a group of women are actively dismembering him. Alone, he is no match for the strength of people fighting for a common cause. He foolishly believes he can continue to feed on the lives of those “who wouldn’t be missed” (280), and in doing so underestimates the very women who are in fact strong enough to bring his long life to a brutal end.

Patricia’s daughter Korey ages from elementary school student to high school junior during the course of the novel. Korey is popular and sporty, which sometimes causes jealousy in Patricia. As Korey ages, she grows withdrawn, which her father dismisses as normal, but which is soon revealed to be the result of James repeatedly raping her and vampirically draining her blood, which gives her momentary pleasure, but leads to lethargy. Patricia saves Korey by sending her to a drug treatment center on the false pretense that Korey is using. After James Harris’s death, Korey returns home to see the family’s dying dog and she seems more like her old self, though never fully recovered from her ordeal.

Patricia’s son Blue is arguably the family member most affected by James Harris. An intelligent and fearful boy, Blue reacts poorly to his grandmother Miss Mary’s dementia, scared of her unpredictable behavior. This fear grows when Mrs. Savage attacks Patricia—Blue worries that his grandmother could turn rabid like Mrs. Savage did. Blue reacts to domestic instability by developing a morbid obsession with Nazi Germany, fascinated by statistics about death and books about the genocidal Nazi party. Blue discovers Patricia after her suicide attempt, which devastates their relationship. He grows angry and distrusting, rebellious and moody, and prone to aggressive acts towards his toys and even animals. Even more alarmingly, Blue’s relationship with James Harris grows stronger. Blue turns to James when he runs away from home, and he lies the night of Slick’s rape to give James an alibi. After James Harris’s demise, Blue softens, choosing to live with his mom and Korey when the Campbells get divorced.

Psychiatrist Carter is introduced as a suitable husband for Patricia, who can be distant but still comes to the rescue of his wife multiple times. He has noble intentions to obtain more of a work/life balance as he weighs his options of potential promotions at work and time at home with the family. He also cares a great deal for his mom Miss Mary. Even when he and the other husbands shut down Patricia’s plan to have James Harris arrested, he appears to be coming from a place of love.

But soon, the novel reveals his flawed way of thinking. Sexism blinds Carter to the truth about James—he dismisses his wife’s accusations as the fantasies of a bored housewife. His solution to Patricia’s worries and Blue’s behavioral problems is pills. Instead of doing the emotional work to repair these relationships, he wants to control the people around him.

Carter is greedy and selfish. He cheats on Patricia with younger women during his business trips. He invests in James Harris’s Gracious Cay project despite its damage to Six Mile to make a great deal of money. Carter’s flaws are similar to those of James Harris: He can never be satisfied, which causes him to be apathetic about the lives of his neighbors, the children of Six Mile, and his own family. With the death of James Harris comes the death of Carter’s financial prosperity and the demise of his marriage: Greed inevitably leads to ruin.

The most devout Christian of the book club, Slick battles with her conscience throughout the novel, weighing every decision she makes against her religious beliefs. Ultimately, she decides in favor of defeating James Harris, a decision that proves her undoing: After she threatens to expose James’s identity and crimes, he violently rapes her. Slick’s loyalty to her friends is proven after Patricia’s suicide attempt: Slick is the only one who visits her in the hospital. In turn, Patricia shows up for Slick after the rape, and the tenderness they show for each other in their most vulnerable states shows the necessity and beauty of female friendships. As Slick is dying in the hospital, she offers encouragement to the other women; she inspires feelings of love, friendship, and admiration even after she passes away.

Grace is the picture-perfect Southern housewife and mother. She is also keenly observant and detail-oriented. Her list of the license plate numbers of unusual cars proves useful during the investigation of James Harris. After the women’s husband bully their wives into apologizing for attempting to have James Harris arrested, Grace’s husband beats her, infuriated that she would endanger his financial windfall. After this, Grace is hesitant to participate in the women’s fight against James, though she rallies at a crucial moment. Her story adds to the current of patriarchal oppression and sexism that runs through the novel.

Fun-loving and artsy, Kitty does not fit the stereotypical Southern housewife mold. She wears plastic jewelry and baggy sweaters, smokes cigarettes, and drinks. Kitty’s main character arc is finding courage, which she does through her friendships with the women in the book club. She is the only one who agrees to go to Six Mile with Patricia. Later, even though she is scared of being caught by James Harris, Kitty helps Patricia clean up evidence of them having broken in. Kitty is terrified by Francine’s corpse, but she pushes through her fear and does what needs to be done to help her friend. The final test to her courage lies within the task of killing the vampire. Kitty leads the attack, striking the first blow to James’s head and she takes the brunt of the physical fight, driving a knife into his neck.

Maryellen is moved to Mt. Pleasant from the North and is still learning some of the cultural expectations of the suburban South. Eventually, she opens up to Patricia about the reason her family relocated to the Old Village: Her police officer husband had a mental breakdown after their home was broken into; feeling that he had failed to protect his own family, he became more and more dangerous, until he viciously beat a kid who was shoplifting so much that the kid lost hearing in one ear. The position he found in Mt. Pleasant was one of the few jobs he could still get after this incident. This plot element contributes to the theme of men—particularly white men in power—avoiding responsibility for their crimes: Instead of being thrown in jail, Ed is allowed to simply leave his precinct after committing assault.

Patricia’s mother-in-law Miss Mary is an aging woman with dementia that interferes with coherent speech and leads to erratic behavior, though once she was an incredibly capable, smart, and loving teacher and mother. Miss Mary embodies the theme of ageism. Though she is central to the unveiling of James Harris’s true identity, her story about Hoyt Pickens is initially dismissed as dementia-induced raving. Miss Mary exposes James’s reliance on unconscious bias and racism to get away with his many crimes: He shifts the blame onto marginalized people like Leon, a Black veteran with, or Wanda, a poor mother in Six Mile.

Miss Mary is also a supernatural counterweight to James Harris, returning as a helpful ghost to guide her daughter-in-law to the photographic evidence of James’s unnaturally long life. She connects Patricia with Ursula Greene, who becomes an important ally. Miss Mary’s last ghostly visit is brief and non-verbal, but it is evident that she is at last at peace, having helped resolve the tragic mistakes of her family and town.