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3.67 AVERAGE
3.67 AVERAGE
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Vesper works as a waitress at some franchise restaurant, where she has to wear an ugly polo shirt and sing the birthday song. She’s just trying to make her own way in this world. After growing up in a cult in rural New Jersey, she left home at 18. She’s been estranged from her mother ever since. Then, she receives an invitation to her cousin Rosie’s wedding to her ex-boyfriend. Of course, she decides to go, so she can break them up. However, when she gets there, some things are like she never left. Her mother is still cold to her, but her Aunt Grace makes up for it. Once the wedding is over, Vesper heads home back to her apartment and job, but things are not the same. Her father finds her and brings her back to the cult farm, but not for the reason she thinks. This was another fun story. It was a little over the top at times, but I still really enjoyed it. Again the narrator was wonderful. An easy 4 stars.
Merged review:
Vesper works as a waitress at some franchise restaurant, where she has to wear an ugly polo shirt and sing the birthday song. She’s just trying to make her own way in this world. After growing up in a cult in rural New Jersey, she left home at 18. She’s been estranged from her mother ever since. Then, she receives an invitation to her cousin Rosie’s wedding to her ex-boyfriend. Of course, she decides to go, so she can break them up. However, when she gets there, some things are like she never left. Her mother is still cold to her, but her Aunt Grace makes up for it. Once the wedding is over, Vesper heads home back to her apartment and job, but things are not the same. Her father finds her and brings her back to the cult farm, but not for the reason she thinks. This was another fun story. It was a little over the top at times, but I still really enjoyed it. Again the narrator was wonderful. An easy 4 stars.
Merged review:
Vesper works as a waitress at some franchise restaurant, where she has to wear an ugly polo shirt and sing the birthday song. She’s just trying to make her own way in this world. After growing up in a cult in rural New Jersey, she left home at 18. She’s been estranged from her mother ever since. Then, she receives an invitation to her cousin Rosie’s wedding to her ex-boyfriend. Of course, she decides to go, so she can break them up. However, when she gets there, some things are like she never left. Her mother is still cold to her, but her Aunt Grace makes up for it. Once the wedding is over, Vesper heads home back to her apartment and job, but things are not the same. Her father finds her and brings her back to the cult farm, but not for the reason she thinks. This was another fun story. It was a little over the top at times, but I still really enjoyed it. Again the narrator was wonderful. An easy 4 stars.
dark
funny
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
A bit of spoilers!!
I personally don’t like characters who are pretty pessimistic or have that “a-hole sarcasm”. It just annoys me. But honestly, I think it suits the main character and it’s important to her character development. I also sort of thought the whole “oh my dad is quite literally Satan and I am the antichrist” was a teensy bit cheesy but overall it did play out very well in my opinion! I did enjoy the two overall themes of the book; 1. Just because your family or how you were raised was horrible, it doesn’t mean you have to repeat the cycle. You are your own person and you have the freedom to make your own choices. And 2. People suck, the world sucks, everything basically sucks. But if you constantly focus on the negative aspects of life, you too will be sucked into that misery and you will never have a chance to see the beauty hidden within the ugly in the world. Be the change, be the good. Don’t become a part of what makes the world dark.
Very lovely read and I have to say, I love Constance’s whole vibe and I just wish to have a house like hers!
I personally don’t like characters who are pretty pessimistic or have that “a-hole sarcasm”. It just annoys me. But honestly, I think it suits the main character and it’s important to her character development. I also sort of thought the whole “oh my dad is quite literally Satan and I am the antichrist” was a teensy bit cheesy but overall it did play out very well in my opinion! I did enjoy the two overall themes of the book; 1. Just because your family or how you were raised was horrible, it doesn’t mean you have to repeat the cycle. You are your own person and you have the freedom to make your own choices. And 2. People suck, the world sucks, everything basically sucks. But if you constantly focus on the negative aspects of life, you too will be sucked into that misery and you will never have a chance to see the beauty hidden within the ugly in the world. Be the change, be the good. Don’t become a part of what makes the world dark.
Very lovely read and I have to say, I love Constance’s whole vibe and I just wish to have a house like hers!
It was never a good sign when charismatic men started talking about the apocalypse.
Ari and I were planning on having a casual buddy read about cults. No pressure, just a few chapters a day. Super chill. And then we both texted each other and said “whoops, I already read half of the book.” 🤣 We truly inhaled this bat shit crazy book, so thank you for being a great partner in crime, Ari!
The book is about Vesper, a brutally sarcastic, brutally honest, and brutally over everyone’s bullshit waitress in her early 20s. Her coworkers think she has a holier-than-thou attitude and perhaps she does because she was raised in a religious cult with a famous scream queen, actress mom, so yeah, she was pretty special. But she left it all six years ago and while her mom was ice cold, maybe borderline neglectful, and her dad was in and out, she misses her home and her family. So when she gets an invitation to her cousin’s wedding to Vesper’s first love (I guess girl code doesn’t apply in religious cults), she doesn’t hesitate to go (though she probably should have). When she arrives home to the family farm, shit hits the fan and the mayhem doesn’t stop until the very end.
If you think you know how this book will end based on this description - no, you don’t. If you somehow guess the ending, then babe, go play the lottery too. This is a wild ride that we did not see coming at all. It is part horror mixed with gore, a dash of paranormal and supernatural elements, while also being a deep study on faith and family. Who is family? What is home? Are we our parents or do we have more control over our fate? Whose beliefs are right or wrong and who decides that? What does it mean to believe in something? Even though the plot was big and bold, it felt natural for Vesper to tackle these big questions as a woman in her early 20s trying to figure out herself against the backdrop of religious trauma and complicated parental relationships.
The pacing is fast and even reading about the mundane (oh the joys of being a waitress) was gripping. The only time that it felt slow to me was towards the end during one particular sequence (no spoilers) where I just wanted to shake Vesper and yell, “you in danger, girl!”
Vesper is deeply flawed but who wouldn’t be with her upbringing? She is always sharp and funny and sometimes deeply selfish and mean. While being abandoned by her dad is a big painful wound, it is somehow less painful and less complicated than her relationship with her mom. I think by the end, you get a better understanding of who her mother is and how she feels about Vesper but it is truly, blink and you’ll miss it. Vesper isn’t perfect but I was rooting for her all the same.
You will probably like this book if you like:
🖤 Stories that take you on a wild ride
🖤 Horror
🖤 Religious cults and the trauma associated with them
🖤 A sassy, funny, flawed main character
🖤 Fast paced storytelling
I will definitely be reading more from Rachel Harrison, but this time I will know to go in with no expectations.
Ari and I were planning on having a casual buddy read about cults. No pressure, just a few chapters a day. Super chill. And then we both texted each other and said “whoops, I already read half of the book.” 🤣 We truly inhaled this bat shit crazy book, so thank you for being a great partner in crime, Ari!
The book is about Vesper, a brutally sarcastic, brutally honest, and brutally over everyone’s bullshit waitress in her early 20s. Her coworkers think she has a holier-than-thou attitude and perhaps she does because she was raised in a religious cult with a famous scream queen, actress mom, so yeah, she was pretty special. But she left it all six years ago and while her mom was ice cold, maybe borderline neglectful, and her dad was in and out, she misses her home and her family. So when she gets an invitation to her cousin’s wedding to Vesper’s first love (I guess girl code doesn’t apply in religious cults), she doesn’t hesitate to go (though she probably should have). When she arrives home to the family farm, shit hits the fan and the mayhem doesn’t stop until the very end.
If you think you know how this book will end based on this description - no, you don’t. If you somehow guess the ending, then babe, go play the lottery too. This is a wild ride that we did not see coming at all. It is part horror mixed with gore, a dash of paranormal and supernatural elements, while also being a deep study on faith and family. Who is family? What is home? Are we our parents or do we have more control over our fate? Whose beliefs are right or wrong and who decides that? What does it mean to believe in something? Even though the plot was big and bold, it felt natural for Vesper to tackle these big questions as a woman in her early 20s trying to figure out herself against the backdrop of religious trauma and complicated parental relationships.
The pacing is fast and even reading about the mundane (oh the joys of being a waitress) was gripping. The only time that it felt slow to me was towards the end during one particular sequence (no spoilers) where I just wanted to shake Vesper and yell, “you in danger, girl!”
Vesper is deeply flawed but who wouldn’t be with her upbringing? She is always sharp and funny and sometimes deeply selfish and mean. While being abandoned by her dad is a big painful wound, it is somehow less painful and less complicated than her relationship with her mom. I think by the end, you get a better understanding of who her mother is and how she feels about Vesper but it is truly, blink and you’ll miss it. Vesper isn’t perfect but I was rooting for her all the same.
You will probably like this book if you like:
🖤 Stories that take you on a wild ride
🖤 Horror
🖤 Religious cults and the trauma associated with them
🖤 A sassy, funny, flawed main character
🖤 Fast paced storytelling
I will definitely be reading more from Rachel Harrison, but this time I will know to go in with no expectations.
dark
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Bonus points for knowing Flavor-aid instead of Kool-aid for Jonestown. Rachel Harrison has a way of making a book predictable, yet completely unpredictable at the same time. Her opening story can seem boring and heavy-handed, but it definitely takes some turns. I'm having fun with this author!
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
At the beginning of the book, I really liked the ideas. Then the couple of main cruxes of the plot were so obvious that I was wishing that the story would move faster because the audience reveal was soo much later than I would have liked. And then…nothing much more really happened. The author really didn’t delve any deeper into those two main reveal things, nor did she get into the religion’s details, or any bigger themes. It just sort of stayed stagnant for the last half of the book and relied on some action scenes to keep things going. But there were definitely fun Midsommar vibes.
—————
Spoilers:
—————
The ending really disappointed me. I didn’t want Vesper to be a hero, and she really wasn’t, but she was acting and other people were acting like she was being a hero and saving the world. I personally believe that she was only countering her dad because she’s just always trying to be oppositional AND (most importantly) because she only really tried to stop him once it was about him betraying and killing her. So I think her “heroics” were only down to her feeling threatened and upset about the perceived betrayal/personal vendettas, not about anything noble or altruistic at all. Like, it was an excuse to fight against people she never liked in the first place. Vesper never had to make any hard choices at all with the final conflict; another point in favor of her not being a hero at all - I see a hero character as someone who has to make sacrifices and tough choices, which Vesper didn’t do at all. I would have rather seen Vesper go full evil or something.
—————
Spoilers:
—————
The ending really disappointed me. I didn’t want Vesper to be a hero, and she really wasn’t, but she was acting and other people were acting like she was being a hero and saving the world. I personally believe that she was only countering her dad because she’s just always trying to be oppositional AND (most importantly) because she only really tried to stop him once it was about him betraying and killing her. So I think her “heroics” were only down to her feeling threatened and upset about the perceived betrayal/personal vendettas, not about anything noble or altruistic at all. Like, it was an excuse to fight against people she never liked in the first place. Vesper never had to make any hard choices at all with the final conflict; another point in favor of her not being a hero at all - I see a hero character as someone who has to make sacrifices and tough choices, which Vesper didn’t do at all. I would have rather seen Vesper go full evil or something.