SoapZone Community Message Board

Dinner for Vampires: Life on a Cult TV Show While Also In An Actual Cult by Bethany Joy Lenz A

I was really impressed by this book. It’s Lenz’s story of how she became a member of a cult, and the names were changed of famous vampire lore characters. Spoiler alert—Harker is Jonathan Jackson. I was like “This would be wild if the ‘actor/musician brothers’ were Richard Lee and Jonathan Jackson”, and lo and behold there is enough evidence online that it was.

The Very Long, Every Strange Life of Isaac Dahl by Bart Yates A

A 96-year old tells the story of his life by an event every 8 years (so something that happened when he was 8, 16, 24). Definitely a unique book.

Walking Disaster by Deryck Whibley A-. I am a very casual fan of Sum 41, but I really enjoyed this one—another rock and roll descent into alcoholism and drug addiction.

The Old Place by Bobby Finger A- A secret haunts a retired teacher and her best friend, both who lost their teenage sons twelve years prior, in a small Texas town.

Swipe Right For Murder by Derek Milman A. A teenage guy finds himself in bed with a corpse and suddenly part of a spy/FBI manhunt. Modern day young adult/gay take on Vertigo.

The B-List:

The Lottery and Other Stories/The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson B+/B: I hadn’t read anything by Jackson but know she’s highly regarded, so I wanted to change that this month. I’m not a huge fan of short stories, but she had several good ones in the collection, and The Haunting of Hill House was also a good short novel. I was hoping to read them for Halloween but it was later in November by the time I got to them.

I Curse You With Joy by Tiffany Haddish B+ I enjoyed Haddish’s second memoir as much as her first. I’m on a celeb memoir kick I guess.

The Third Gilmore Girl by Kelly Bishop B. I like Bishop more after reading, but it wasn’t the most entertaining memoir.

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna B A 30-something year old witch is hired to be the mentor to a trio of child witches. I’m ready for the limited series or movie though.

Civilizations by Laurent Binet B The idea was so much better than the execution, which is why I rated it higher. It’s an alternate history where the Incas invade Europe after 1492.

Box Office Poison: Hollywood’s Story in a Century of Flops by Tim Robey B A collection of many of Hollywood’s box office bombs. I always enjoy reading about these types of failures.

The C-List

The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson C+ This was supposed to be a real story! At times some horrible writing with weird exclamation points! I ended up skimming a lot of it! (Yes, I did the exclamation points on purpose!)