The state of the world today, it's like a girl can't go out late at night to an isolated orgy without being lured into a vampire den anymore... Such is the situation that our MC Slaone and her best friend Naomi find themselves in.

Let me start by saying I really liked Such Sharp Teeth and I loved loved loved Black Sheep and overall just Harrison's feminist take on common paranormal themes so I had high hopes for this book. While I did love the strong bonds of friendship - Sloane and Naomi are each others ride or die- figuratively and literally- I felt that they weren't well fleshed out as characters. It wasn't clear why either of them were tethered to the men in their lives who didn't treat them well, and given their vastly different personalities, what even tied these childhood friends together as adults.

As for the vampires themselves, they were just B list characters with no traits or backstories that made them seem like individuals or stand out in any way. Only Henry seemed to have a deep and dark past but us readers never get to understand the breadth of what that really is (which would have been super interesting). Naomi was the most complex of all the vampires, fighting between her innate good nature and insatiable hunger and thirsty urges.

While this book contained Harrison's usual fantastic writing and witty dialogue, I didn't feel that this was a new or fresh take on a very commonly done classic sub-genre. I was waiting for the piece that made this book different, and I just didn't get that in the way that I did for another recent feminist vampire novel, We Love The Nightlife.

At less than 300 pages, this read was short and concise like Harrison's books typically are, but I think it would have benefited from a few more chapters to make the characters seem less two dimensional. A fun, propulsive read that unfortunately was just lacking for me, but I have seen good reviews from other readers and so overall I think Harrison fans might like this one.

Rachel Harrison has once again written another must for your spooky season TBR.

In keeping with her tradition of a feminist lens on traditional horror tropes, Harrison basically reframes the "man vs. bear" debate. It asks us if we'd rather choose most men or most monsters- and how to embrace women's wrongs along with women's rights. Certified Good Girl, Sloane, is a reflection of so many of us who settle for good enough (and sometimes not even good enough). Carefree best friend, Naomi, is her complete opposite- wild and free- or so it seems.

When a girls' weekend reveals both women's insecurities and flaws, they are directly confronted with their fates when they attend a party that will change everything...

My only critique of this story is that it got a little messy and convoluted in its messaging in some spots, but it managed to get back on track for the most party. 3.5 rounded up.

Two women go to a party and come back as vampires? I’m sold! This was so fun! The last quarter was so unhinged and a bit rushed but nevertheless, I ate this up!

What to expect:
Friendship
Toxic relationships
Identity
Vampires
Paranormal romance

I’ll definitely be picking up more of this author’s novels in the future!

Huge thanks to Berkley and NetGalley for the ARC!

This was such a fun fast paced read. I read it in a day.

Sloane and her friend, Naomi go on a girls trip for her birthday, what could go wrong?

I don’t want to say too much to avoid spoilers, but I loved Sloane & Naomi’s friendship and how they would do anything for eachother.

It’s the perfect book for the start of spooky season. I saw someone describe this as cozy horror and that’s the perfect description.

Thank you NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for this eARC.

Short synopsis: Sloane and her best friend Naomi go on a birthday trip, after a wild night out they find their lives are changes forever.

My thoughts: while this one wasn’t hugely original, it kept me entertained and I binged this one in a day.

I liked the friendships between the two main characters, and the campy story of a night of bad choices with forever consequences. It definitely gets somewhat gory, but that’s to be expected with a vampire novel.

Parts felt a bit rushed or underwhelming especially towards the end, but it was the perfect book to get me in the fall reading mood.

Read if you love:
- Vampires
- Girls trips
- Romance sub plot with an age gap
- Self discovery and growth

SO amazing. To best friends get more than they bargained for when they join a seggs party with some questionable individuals. This gives all the vampire vibes you didn't know you needed.

This book felt like one of those great 80’s movies even though it’s not a movie, nor is it set in the 80’s. It manages to capture the friendship, horror and humor of the 80’s scary movie in a way that makes you fall absolutely in love, even if the main character grates on your nerves. Sloane’s birthday is approaching, and her husband has surprised her with a weekend trip to a luxury spa. Only, he isn’t planning on going, her wild child long time best friend Naomi is. Naomi and Sloane have been there for each other, but in the last year Naomi has been away travelling Europe with her boyfriend’s band and their relationship has become more superficial. Sloane hopes this will be the chance for the two of them to hang out, sip wine and reconnect without having to get too personal. Naomi hopes this will be a chance for her to wake up her friend into really living her life and not just drifting along. When Naomi’s plan for a wild night out takes a turn for the worse Sloane is forced to make the toughest decision she has ever had to make, and one with dire consequences. This is a great story about the complexities of female friendship. How having the best intentions for someone can go wrong, and how sometimes it’s hard to let go of hidden resentments and past trauma to fully live your life. It was a violent and bloody journey to fall in love with each of the characters and the hidden dark world that Harrison created. I was captivated by the story being told, but I absolutely loved the ending. If you are looking for a dark book that still manages to warm your heart, then definitely pick up a copy of this book.

I devoured this! Harrison is a captivating storyteller. Her blend of horror and humor made this a refreshingly feminist perspective on the vampire genre. Sloane is in her thirties and has struggled with aging and self-worth and settled for a life where she tolerates a cheating husband. No one could predict the turn things would take when he sends her off on a surprise birthday weekend getaway with her wild and uninhibited best friend, Naomi—least of all, Sloane.

The story is fast-paced with gore, action, and vividly depicted characters. Sloane's journey is not just about breaking free from a rut. She has also dealt with trauma and regrets from her past. I rooted for her throughout the book. Her growth occurs as she must navigate a confusing new reality and overwhelming physical cravings, prompting her to reevaluate her life only after she and her best friend become the undead.

The book pays homage to vampire legend while offering a modern take with an introspective FMC. Friendship, self-acceptance, empowerment, and living life to the fullest are central themes, along with an element of found family and a bit of romance. It is well-written, has witty dialogue, and is brimming with heart and dark humor, making it a fabulous spooky season pick. I loved this and had so much fun reading it!

Thank you Berkley Publishing and Netgalley for the opportunity to review this ARC!

Sloane and Naomi are the definition of opposites attract. Sloane plays by the rules and Naomi leads a carefree life. These childhood besties are sent on a girl’s trip by Sloane’s husband for her 36th birthday. While on vacation they go to a party that changes their lives forever. A dark feminist themed, paranormal thriller with new age mysterious vampires.

This is a story about friendship, self-discovery, coming to terms with ageing, midlife crisis, toxic romantic relationships and just touches on so many women’s issues.

So Thirsty was easy to read and entertaining enough to keep me going in a darkly, bleak, eerie kind of way. I enjoy dark, bleak and eerie. It was just not as thrilling as I would’ve hoped. This is like women’s fiction with a smidge of vampires. I wanted more vampire action less in Sloane's head. This story is character centric, so I do wish the characters were developed more especially the vampires. We learn very little about their backstories and how they came to be. Like why the vampire leader was so drawn to Sloane.

“I know I’m not saving you but I’m giving you all the time in the world to save yourself.”

I loved the idea of So Thirsty, female friendship when they were supportive of each other, the vampires, the paranormal romance, the horror scenes with blood and gore. The idea of Sloane saving herself.

It’s an interesting concept and overall, an enjoyable story. I just wish there was more of the vampires, horror aspect and less of Sloane's wallowing. The epilogue was nice giving us a broad glimpse into how the found vampire family are adjusting to their new lives to close out the story.

Beginning as two friends taking a relaxing get away, and ending as anythingggg but that. unfortunately, i’m majorly disappointed in So Thirsty. This book felt very indecisive genre wise, is it young adult? is it horror? is it fantasy? all of the above? i felt a bit confused. and there was soooo much foreshadowing in the beginning. that’s the part that was screaming YA to me. tell me once and i’ve got it, but the repetition of the same foreshadowing line was too often for me.

also, i couldn’t find the why of this book. one day they’re normal women, with some boy troubles, and literally the next day they’re committing crimes. why?? for what reason? too much felt random for my liking. the transition from regular life to immortality was too swift. i didn’t believe it, and that’s my biggest problem with this book. the events, the new friends, the problems, the solutions?? the story line was bizarre and the events felt completely unrelated to each other.

a divorce would have been easier than all of this.

This week, I decided I will spend this Spooky Season becoming a Rachel Harrison completist. She's the author of five novels that put a fresh twist on horror tropes. In a 2022 episode of our podcast 'The Library of Lost Time,' we recommended 'Such Sharp Teeth,' her feminist riff on a werewolf story. And last year, I kicked off my Spooky Season reading with 'Black Sheep.' That one is a comedy-horror novel about a girl named Vesper who learns a family secret. Then she basically burns her world to the ground. Harrison has also tackled a witch story with 'Cackle,' and has an Audible short story called 'The Veil' about a woman who works at a Victorian living history museum.

This Spooky Season, she's gifted us with a vampire story called 'So Thirsty.' I started reading it last Saturday morning after breakfast and finished at about midnight. Perfection.

The setup is irresistible: Our heroine Sloane is feeling her age, so she's dreading her upcoming birthday. Her cheating rat of a husband surprises her with a gift. She hates surprises. Even this one: a weekend with her lifelong best friend Naomi at a fancy spa resort.

Naomi is a wild child; her boyfriend is a rockstar, and she never encountered an iffy situation she didn't want to explore. So instead of spending the weekend sipping wine by a fireplace, she accepts an invitation from some sexy locals to join them at a mansion for an evening of debauchery. One thing leads to another and before you can say 'toss me that garlic clove,' Sloane and Naomi's lives are changed forever.

Rachel Harrison is so good at this. It's so much fun to vicariously join these characters as they careen into danger. And the dialogue! Sloane and Naomi have been friends for decades, and the way they talk to each other sounds like it. The rhythm and shorthand of their conversations felt like a transcript of eavesdropping on old friends.

After some sexy, hedonistic, candlelit bits at the mansion, the two women are faced with the practicalities of the vampire life. It's tragic and hilarious at the same time. How do vampires put on makeup? Are all vampires murderers? The collision of boring, everyday stuff and the rules of being undead is a hoot. And along the way, Harrison has smart things to say about aging, trauma, and how we define the lives we want.

This is a wild ride that I couldn't put down. If you like your horror with a side of sarcasm, I can't recommend this enough.

I'll be recommending this book on the September 20 episode of 'The Library of Lost Time' — http://strongsenseofplace.com/lolts/lolt-2024-09-20/

I really binge read this one! I saw some people saying, if you liked twilight, read this one, but I feel like this one goes much deeper and is definitely more of a story and a testament to friendship and not much romance. I really did love this one! This story was deep, but still so exciting and adventurous. This one also really shed some light on morals, how long do we keep holding on to them? When do we cross the line, what has to happen for us to really justify crossing it, without feeling guilty? I can’t wait to read the rest of her books and this one is out now!!!!

📚 #BOOKREVIEW 📚
So Thirsty by Rachel Harrison
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / Pages: 304 / Genre: Vampire Horror
Release Date: Tomorrow—September 10, 2024

Best friends Sloane and Naomi are on a girls weekend away from their unfulfilled real lives. It’s your typical BFF catchup and cocktails getaway until they meet up with an eclectic group of vampires. Their mundane lives are suddenly more exciting and out of control than they could have ever imagined.

So, I always say I’m more into witches than vampires. Well, this vampire tale might just be the thing to flip me—at the very least, I’m now a Rachel Harrison fan. I loved it! It was fast-paced, fun, and full of twists.


Thank you, @NetGalley, @BerkleyPub, and @RachelHarrisonsGhost for my gifted copy.

Thank you Netgalley and Berkley for the eGalley!

SO THIRSTY was a highly anticipated read for me. This is the third year in a row that I have read Harrison’s newest release! Unfortunately, it didn't work for me…I really wanted to love it 😭

This one felt rushed overall, and honestly I couldn't see how Noami and Sloane are still best friends. And the ending? Fell flat.

I love Rachel Harrison’s books! She uses horror to explore such real problems for women. The best parts of this book are when it focuses on female friendship between Naomi and Sloane; it’s about how even the people we love best can misunderstand and hurt. I love the ferocity with which Rachel insists women are allowed to take up space! Even if society tells women that once you hit 30 you’re not a person anymore. Sloane’s suffering and self limitation resonates with so many women I’ve known. We’re allowed to take.

"Sloane thought her birthday couldn’t get any worse than her husband sending her and her best friend on a trip to the Finger Lakes region of New York, without him, all so he could cheat on her while she was gone. But then the vampires showed up.

So Thirsty was such a compelling read. Vampires are my favorite paranormal creature to read about, but usually it’s in a romantic context. Harrison blew me away with her introspective take on what it means to be a vampire, and what it means to lose your humanity.

I fell in love with these characters almost immediately. Even through all the foreshadowing in the early chapters of So Thirsty, Sloane just felt so relatable. I was definitely anxious to get to all the paranormal stuff, but in hindsight, all the mundane happenings at the beginning perfectly set up Sloane’s morality issues later on in the story.

It was really this clash between her old life and new that truly made this book hard to put down for me. As a human, Sloane avoided conflict and kept to herself; she spent years with a cheating husband because it was easier to look the other way than to fight for her own happiness. But as a vampire, Sloane could no longer sit back and be passive. Denying herself, and her thirst, could easily lead to harm for both herself and for anyone around her.

Harrison truly explored vampires in a new way with this story. We do get some romance, or at least the beginning stages of one, between Sloane and Henry, the vampire who turned her. And while they do develop a physical relationship in between Sloane’s existential crises, the explicit parts are all fade-to-black, keeping the main focus on Sloane and what she is willing to do, and what she is willing to give up, in order to survive. Most of the vampire stories I read really play up the seductive, impossible-to-resist vampire persona, but Harrison turned common vamire myths on their head and created creatures who are multifaceted, sometimes lonely, and have dreams and desires - people who have to fight for their survival just like humans, albeit with a slightly different appetite.

So Thirsty was so much more than a vampire story. Harrison dove deep into the morality of wants and needs, and the effects deprivation can have on your body and soul. Sloane might not be the perfect little suburban wife she once was, but she knows what a monster looks like now - and it’s not always the vampire. "

This book was the perfect combination of gory, mysterious, stressful, fun, and romantic! Sloane is a woman who feels unimportant due to her mundane life and on the eve of her 36th birthday, she struggles with the idea of aging. When she and her best friend Naomi go on a trip for her birthday things take a turn, towards the immortal... With an amazing and kooky cast of characters who I found myself quickly warming up to and a dark and mysterious man whom I couldn't help but overlook every single flaw and just swoon for this book was deeply entertaining. Sloane and Naomi's friendship and love were so well developed and seeing their different personalities transform throughout the book was interesting. The ending almost had me sobbing and thank gosh for the epilogue because I wouldn't have been able to emotionally accept the ending otherwise. If you want a spooky book that has vampires, thrills, friendship, romance, a lot of self-discovery, and is little messy but feels real and honest this book delivers.

✨ Review ✨ So Thirsty by Rachel Harrison, Narrated by Brittany Pressley

Thanks to Berkley, PRHAudio, and #netgalley for the gifted advanced copy/ies of this book!

So Thirsty brings us a vampire story that transcends genres including romance and horror (or maybe horror light).

Sloane sets off on a birthday weekend with her best friend Naomi in a remote luxury cottage. She's filled with angst over her stale relationship with her husband (who's cheated on her multiple times), her aging body, and just a general feeling of stasis. However, when Naomi plans a crazy night away, partying with strangers for her birthday, everything changes for them.

It's hard to talk about this one without giving too much away, but it went from 0-90 with slow, angsty narration in the first part to a wild-paced, frenetic story that followed. In some ways, the pacing felt a little whiplash-y, but I think this also made the story feel like an exciting rollercoaster ride.

I didn't love the writing style of this book -- it has lots of short and choppy sentences and fragments all stacked up. Switching to audio helped a lot, Pressley's narration is great, and it eased some of the clunkiness of these short sentences. I also adored the voices she did for the cast of characters that originated outside the US. Even switching back to the print book after listening, her narration made these characters feel more lifelike because I could imagine them through her voice.

Overall, I enjoyed the plot, and thought it was tons of fun, but didn't always love the writing in its pacing and style.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: horror, f/m romance, paranormal
Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
Pub Date: Sept 10, 2024

Read this if you like:
⭕️ horror that's not super scary
⭕️ a ragtag bunch of characters on the run
⭕️ vampire stories

This book is more about female friendship than vampires.

Sloane gets drawn out of her shell by her best friend, and the next thing she knows she's at a vampire party. This mysterious, odd group of individuals transforms these women's life and friendship. I struggled through their acceptance of "what" they've chosen to become with this ragtag group of vampires. The story was incredibly slow moving. The upside of this book was truly Henry.

Thank you, Berkley Publishing Group | Berkley

This was such a fun and gory read, perfect for Halloween! I really liked the friendship between Sloane and Naomi first and foremost, and I felt like the depth of their friendship often took center stage. I loved the themes of second chances and morality. All of the vampire side characters were great! I'm becoming a big fan of Harrison's books and can't wait for her next one!