A review by trinityb2021
Dinner for Vampires: Life on a Cult TV Show by Bethany Joy Lenz

4.5

4.5 ⭐️

What a rollercoaster of a book?!

I think learning how and why abusers take advantage of people will always be fascinating. Hearing the tone and language that the cult leader used to indoctrinate people and make them reliant on him was horrifying.

Rare celebrity memoir where her Hollywood experience was mostly positive. She had great friends on set, a good manager and agent.

My favorite scene was one near the end where Joy meets an old friend from New York who says she “would never be stupid enough to fall for that.” I think a lot of people have that thought but you can never know that unless you’re in a position where you’re vulnerable. Sure, the confident, mature, financially stable version of you would never fall for that. What about when you’re at rock bottom?

Joy struggles with her faith throughout this book. While I’m not religious in the slightest, I still found her journey pretty inspiring. When used for good, religion is a good thing. Unfortunately, this story is one of many examples of how it can be used to exploit the most vulnerable members of society.

I don’t know what to say about this book except that you need to read it. If you have even once wondered how these religious cults pop up and who would join them, this book will answer all your questions with terrifying clarity.

The author’s note at the end through me for a wild loop. She calls Catholicism “awful” and while I agree on some level, I think we agree for very different reasons. How can you call Catholicism awful when you know from personal experience that every sect of religion has the capacity for horrible things? It doesn’t really matter. Religious people will be doing crazy shit for the rest of time but after experiencing the horrors of a religious cult, I couldn’t fathom that Joy still held these beliefs. She also says to hold space for something. I don’t even remember what she said because I was laughing my ass off. What do you mean “hold space”? Is this the Wicked press tour? You can’t unironically use that phrase anymore.