Vampire meets suburban mom. Who will emerge victorious?
Mom, obviously. Especially if that mom belongs to a book club that reads true-crime thrillers.
Patricia Campbell is our main character and most of the book is told in third-person limited from her perspective.
I kind of love that this book starts off with Patricia belonging to a book club that reads “serious” books that fail to grab her attention.
So she joins another book club that reads only true-crime thrillers. Books she can’t put down and can’t wait to discuss with her friends.
But when a mysterious stranger comes to town and Patricia tries to ring the alarm, she finds out which of those women are truly her friends, and which ones try to gaslight her into believing there’s nothing wrong.
When a handsome stranger moves into the house formerly owned by his (alleged) aunt, Patricia is initially as charmed and taken in by him as everyone else in town.
But then children start disappearing or turning up dead, and when all signs point to James, Patricia can’t get anyone to listen.
She starts with her husband, who assures her he’ll do his best, but then he does nothing, rationalizes his inaction, and gets angry at Patricia when she reminds him they had both promised to help.
Unfortunately, by the time Patricia starts to realize James isn’t who or what he claims to be, it’s too late. He’s already ingratiated himself with everyone else in town (especially the menfolk) to the point where it’s easier for everyone to brush off Patricia’s concerns than to deal with the viper in their nest.
It’s ironic considering how the people of the town love to go on and on about how “neighborly” they are and what a great “community” they are. Not like those awful people up north who will stab you in the back then leave you for dead.
And yet, looking out for each other is exactly what Patricia’s neighbors fail to do.
The brilliant thing about this book is that the vampire isn’t the scariest part. The terrifying part of this book was all the awful things people do to each other, especially the horror and frustration of not being believed by the very people who are supposed to have your back no matter what.
Honestly, that’s the part of the book that hit hardest for me. I’m currently not talking to either of my brothers because a viper managed to work her way into our family and turn them both against me. Now no one will listen to me when I try to point her out as the two-faced, manipulative liar she is.
Like me, Patricia saw no point in fighting a war on all fronts, so she tried to stop living. It was especially chilling when she finally confronted James alone and he said he thought for sure even then that she would kill herself, but she “couldn’t even do that right.”
Don’t worry. Patricia does end up finally getting the best of him along with some help from her friends, who have finally seen the light and agreed to back her up.
Then she divorces her asshole husband and gets to live happily ever after with her kids and a job she loves.