I think this book covers Chinese folklore, mystery, grief, and some underlying romance in a way that was just so incredibly captivating. The writing wasn’t overly flowery but I would still consider masterfully done. 

I enjoyed the story and Vanessa was relatable, but I found this book and I just struggled to find a wow factor 

I loved how this displayed mental health and how everything unfolded in this story. 

This book was giving white savior and it gave me the ick. 

Edited because I thought about it and dislike the book more and more. Possibly a hot take but(spoilers ahead): 
The Southern Book Club’s Guide To Slaying Vampires. 

TLDR: racist undertones, violence against only women, children, and colored folks, and the only character with any depth being a singular vampire who gets pervvy with kids. 

The women in that book are one dimensional with hints of a second dimension at best. Also, out of like six ladies in the book club, they all landed basic husbands with similar personalities? All of them telling their wives what to do, blocking them going to the police, when they couldn’t stop the book club they forced themselves into it and changed the reading, and multiple of the husbands possibly cheated on their wives. 
Speaking of the men: If a character is a white man, then they’re safe. No harm will come to them.  It was gross. 
Danger only happened to the black, women, and children characters. But, let’s take a moment to discuss the black characters. Largely non-speaking rolls, sometimes not given a name, and besides a character (Mrs.green), they were described closer to being thugs. I understand describing racism in a book and even having racist incidents happening - but it was portrayed in a way that struck me as problematic. Overall, the book was giving me white savior vibes. Even the white dead MIL came back from the dead as a ghost to ‘save the children’. 
A mild pet peeve of mine was the mention of vampires in the title, but there’s really only one. You could argue that Slick turned into a vampire after getting vampire aids, but the condition seemed to kill her rather than her BECOMING a vampire. 
Now, onto the vampire - he was spooky and old af, I get that. He was an interesting character, probably the most interesting character in the story. However, it’s depicted multiple times of him actively getting blood from children (trigger warning)

Which he gets the blood by not sucking on their neck or arm or whatever, but by being between their thighs. Like ewwwww.  hated it.

The location of this book was less descriptive than the first; but the world is built in the first book. The relationships are deeper and even characters like Tripp kind of grew on me. I’m super excited to see if/when a third book comes out. 

The second half of the book was good, but this is a light hearted mystery with four women solving their partners murder. 

I really enjoyed how they didn’t just demonize a ghost seeing junky, had sympathy for other people in lower socio economic backgrounds, and didn’t approve of a victim blame-y attitude. It was refreshing. Please read the trigger warnings before picking up this book, while they aren’t incredibly graphic and gory, it could still be unsettling. 

This poetry book felt like a diss track to thinking. 

This book left me feeling spooked and unsettled. I throughly enjoyed this book, just make sure you take a look at the trigger warnings. 

Honestly, I just felt bad for Stella. She was in way over her head.