Shelf Help
Staff from your Monroe County Public Library recommend some of their favorites from the collection.
What: “My Best Friend’s Exorcism” and “The Southern Book Club’s Guide To Slaying Vampires,” both by Grady Hendrix
Why: I recommend both these books because the author identifies the latter as an unofficial sequel. They both take place in the same South Carolina neighborhood in the late ’80s. Common themes in these books are friendship, trusting yourself, the silencing of women’s voices to the detriment of problem solving, monsters, and the importance of working together. Both stories follow the arc of frustration, determination and eventual resolution. “The Southern Book Club” felt like historical fiction, a frighteningly realistic view on an ’80s housewife’s concerns in and outside the home; the titular vampire isn’t the only monster in the story. “My Best Friend’s Exorcism,” on the other hand, reads like a thriller filtered through the lens of an increasingly frustrated teenager — the epilogue of which houses the most touching discussion of love in friendship I have ever personally read. Both books display the power and capacity of women put to test, without feeling like hard “anti-men” literature. A+
Where: “My Best Friend’s Exorcism” is available as a print book and “The Southern Book Club’s Guide To Slaying Vampires” is available as a print book, ebook and e-audiobook from the Monroe County Library system.
How: You can request books online by logging in to www.keyslibraries.org and get ebooks and e-audiobooks 24/7 at www.estuff.keyslibraries.org. If you don’t have a card, you can visit your local branch or register online to get one. Questions? info@keyslibraries.org Recommended by: Faith Price, librarian, Key West branch.
