The Southern Book Club's Guide To Slaying Vampires Quotes
"The only thing tackier than bragging about God was asking about money."
"Being a teenager isn’t a number. It’s the age when you stop liking them."
"No one likes their children. We love them to death, but we don’t like them."
"It’s the nineties. The new people sue you if your dog so much as barks at them."
"But don’t you wish that something exciting would happen around here? Just once?"
"You wish that a gang of unwashed hippies would break into your house and murder your family and write death to pigs in human blood on your walls because you don’t want to pack bag lunches anymore?"
"The only sounds were her feet grinding rocks into the dirt and the angry rasp of crickets and katydids crowding around her in the dark."
"She hadn’t been popular in high school, but Korey captained or co-captained all her teams, and younger girls showed up at games to cheer her on. Inexplicably, girls being sporty had become popular."
"Whether you like it or not, you’ve got owls."
"The nervousness she felt vanished in a flash of irritation. Blue really should be the one cleaning this up."
"May I help you? Patricia asked, because she didn’t know what else to say."
"On the drive home, she felt heavy from the painkillers, and she dreaded saying anything to Carter, but finally, she had to speak."
"You have to make sure the children are all right," it said. "You can’t let them feel frightened."
"Another person knows what you taste like now."
"It’s a different disease," she said. "But I want you to know that I would not let Granny Mary stay with us if it weren’t safe for you and your sister. I would never do anything that put the two of you in danger."
"The biggest white bag had been dragged into the narrow alley between the blank brick wall of their house and the stand of bamboo marking the boundary of the Clarks’ house behind them. She heard the slurping sound of someone eating jelly as she flicked her flashlight up to the bag."
"The first thing she saw was one of Miss Mary’s blue incontinence pads in the dirt."
"A reader lives many lives. The person who doesn’t read lives but one."
"You came creeping back, you," Miss Mary said. "But I see you."
"I am not sure what the appropriate gesture is to make toward the family of the woman who bit off your ear, but if you felt absolutely compelled, I certainly wouldn’t take food."
"Her heart sank, and then immediately she felt selfish. This man had come to her home last night and been sassed by her daughter and spat at by her mother-in-law. He was a human being asking for help. Of course she would do her best."
"What is it?" she asked, making her voice sound as warm and genuine as possible."
"That probate court letter is going to solve the problem of identification," she said.
"She felt efficient. Like she was solving problems and getting things done. She felt like Grace."
"She helped him onto his bed, helped him take off his boots, and then he took her hand."
"In my entire life, you are the kindest person I’ve ever met. You’re an angel sent to me in my time of need."
"Every house became a hermetically sealed space station, central air hovering around a chilly sixty-eight."
"The days dawned noonday hot, and gas tanks hissed when you took off their caps."
"Patricia wouldn’t run errands after the sun started to go down."
"Night after night she’d find James Harris on their front porch and they’d exchange comments about that month’s book club book."
"Those evenings over ice cream, sitting in the dining room with the windows open and a warm, salty breeze blowing through the house and Blue and James Harris talking about World War II, were the last time Patricia felt truly happy."
"You feel like eating something tonight, Miss Mary?"
"Grace’s parties were everything Patricia thought parties should be when she was a little girl."
"Maybe she would give Miss Mary a cool bath, Mrs. Greene thought."
"Whatever it takes," Patricia told him. "He’s a good dog."
""Mom died," Carter said, biting down hard on each word."
"The house smelled of bleach, and the downstairs looked empty and sounded hard."
""It’s cooler in the house," Mrs. Greene said."
""Jesse, put this in the refrigerator," Mrs. Greene said."
""We’re visiting a friend," Patricia said, clutching her purse tighter."
""I don’t need charity from you. I need work.""
""Vacuum your curtains," Grace said. "No one ever does it enough. I promise it’ll make you feel better.""
"People don't like strangers asking after their children."
"We're all mothers. If something were happening to one of ours and someone thought they knew something, wouldn't you want to know?"
"No one goes out after dark around here anymore."
"It is a bad idea, but you told me you were worried about her little girl and now I can't stop thinking about that."
"Everyone's hungry for our children. The whole world wants to gobble up colored children, and no matter how many it takes it just licks its lips and wants more."
"If my wife says she saw this man doing this, then that's what happened."
"I saw him with a young girl. In the back of his van in the woods at Six Mile. That girl has been taken from her mother by Social Services because of the mark they found on her inner thigh."
"We're the only ones who've noticed something might be wrong."
"How many coincidences do you need before you wake up?"
"What if I’m right?" Patricia said. "And he’s out there giving drugs to these children and we’re too scared of being embarrassed to do anything?"
"Something strange is going on," Patricia continued. "Children in first grade are killing themselves. I got attacked in my own yard."
"The only thing smited is your brains," Maryellen said, turning to Grace. "But she’s not wrong."
"We’re not a lynch mob, we’re a book club," Kitty said. "We’ve always been there for each other."
"I wasn’t trying to kill myself," she said, her jaw clenched. "I was just so angry. You wanted me to take those pills so badly, so I took them."
"Do you know what is at stake here?" he asked. "Do you know the toll your obsession is taking on your family? If you continue down this path you will lose everything we have built together. Everything."
"You’re mad at me, son," Patricia said. "Not at the book."
"I will never forgive you for this. Never. Never. Never."
"He has zero self-control. You’re supposed to be teaching him how to handle his emotions."
"It’s not such a big thing, to ignore some crazy, terrible idea you were once convinced was once true in exchange for all this."
"A no-good man will tell you he’s going to change. He’ll tell you whatever you want to hear, but you’re the fool if you don’t believe what you see."
"You turned your back on me once before. You turned your back on me and now he’s come for your children. You’re out of time. It’s too late to find excuses."
"I don’t want your sorry. I want to know if you’ll come in his house and help me look."
"She’s burning in Hell. She burns because she loves her grandchildren."
"Three things are never satisfied... He’ll eat up everyone in the world and keep on eating."
"You catch more flies with sugar than vinegar."
"Are we not supposed to care about them because they’re poor and black?"
"Everyone’s happy. We’re all okay. The children are safe."
"I tried. I really did try for three years, Slick. But the children aren’t safe."
"What if he comes back and sees that someone’s been in his attic he’s going to take that suitcase, drive it out to Francis Marion National Forest, and bury it where it will never be found."
"I didn’t make a sound…I didn’t make a sound…I didn’t make a sound."
"This doesn’t change anything I said last night."
"I would never make her do something against her will."
"I’m alone. I’ve been alone for a very long time."
"I am crawling on my knees begging for your help."
"We’re a book club, not a bunch of detectives. If he’s so much stronger than us, this is futile."
"It’s about us. It’s about whether we can go the distance."
"He’s underestimated us. We can’t underestimate him."
"This is our families’ safety we’re talking about…our children’s lives. Are you willing to gamble with those?"
"We’re protecting our families. We will do whatever it takes."
"We'll figure it out when we're through here," Mrs. Greene said. Her confidence calmed Kitty.
"One thing she’d learned about men: they liked to talk."
"No one is going to come looking for you," Mrs. Greene said. "You are all alone. You have no one in the world, and when you die no one will notice. No one will care. You leave nothing behind."
"Jesus, Mary, Mother of God," Kitty said softly.
"Please go away," she whispered. "Please go away…please go away…please go away…"
"We can’t do this," Maryellen said. "Someone will come looking for him and they’ll know he was killed the second they open that door."
"Don’t be absurd," Grace said. "Mrs. Greene and I will stay behind. We’ve been cleaning up after men our entire lives. This is no different."
"If ifs and buts were candy and nuts it would be Christmas every day," Grace said. "Now scoot."
"Like no one ever lived here," Mrs. Greene said.
"Tomorrow," Mrs. Greene said, "I’m going to drive up to Irmo and bring my babies home."
"The children are safe," Patricia said. "That’s what matters."
"Think of us what you will, she thought, we made mistakes, and probably scarred our children for life, and we froze sandwiches, and forgot car pool, and got divorced. But when the time came, we went the distance."