Dinner for Vampires is everything I expected and wanted from this memoir but don’t be fooled into thinking this is a good time or a new Lestat story.

Growing up with One Tree Hill, I was absolutely enamored with our big three (Brooke, Peyton, and Haley) and it shaped my ideal for female friendships before Sex and the City ever could. It was so disheartening to see how those relationships weren’t able to transcend into the real life (on set) of Bethany Joy Lenz and to experience her first hand account of living in a cult.

I identified with this story more than I ever hoped also living in a very distinct branch of Christianity and the wild similarities between this religion and cult like mentality. We get to see how anybody can be targeted, coerced, and then ruined by these vampires especially when that someone is a growing star on one of the most exciting shows on television.

This story focuses a lot more on Joy and her time in the cult, her experiences that were shaped by them, and her struggle to get free. Don’t go into this thinking it will be like The Drama Queens Podcast at all or even Hillarie Burton Morgan’s memoir because the topic and her life is vastly different than what we have gotten to hear from these beautiful and strong women. But don’t let the heavy topic dissuade you from reading either. Through an incredibly strong voice, Joy is able to convey her story without begging you to understand but is still able to elicit so much empathy and kindness for survivors of all types. And the insights to her and Paul Johansson’s (evil Dan Scott’s) dear friendship was one of my favourite things to come from this recounting.

Thank you so much for this ARC as this was one of my most anticipated books this year and I was THRILLED to get this months before I had to start my countdown. I can’t wait for everyone to hear her story and all collectively give her a giant hug.

<i>**no star rating for memoirs**</i>

Don’t let my lack of rating mislead you — I really liked this memoir. Normally, I’ll start a book and read just a chapter or two, but this book pulled me in instantly and I read it in one day. The writing style is very easy to read and the subject matter was so outrageous I forgot for a moment that I wasn’t reading fiction.

I can’t believe everything that Bethany went through. One of the worst parts (for me anyway) was how innocuously it started. It was supposed to be a group of friends doing a Bible study/meeting up to talk about their Christian lives and it devolved into <b>THAT</b>!

A lot of it was hard to read (especially the estrangement from her parents and friends not in the cult) but I liked that she found her strength. I also can’t believe they stole $2 million from her! I was sad she didn’t get it back, but I understand why she let it go. They really were vampires, sucking money instead of blood.

I’m glad she did what she had to do for the sake of her daughter.