Dinner for Vampires by Bethany Joy Lenz

Dinner for Vampires

Subtitle: Life on a Cult TV Show (While also in an Actual Cult!)

Author: Bethany Joy Lenz

Genre: Memoir

Publish Date: October 2024

Read: January 2025

Favorite Quote: There is one indisputable way to identify a cult, one characteristic they all share. It is the notion that anyone who does not agree with the group’s beliefs or choices, who expresses concerns, who simply dares to ask questions, is deemed “unsafe.”

Synopsis: Joy Lenz may be best known for her role as Haley James on the hit teenage drama One Tree Hill. Most people, including Joy herself, didn’t think she was part of a “high-control group” — aka a cult. From her late teens through her twenties, Joy navigated the den of wolves known as Hollywood and the wolves trying to run her life and use her for her money.

Why does this book beguile? I watched One Tree Hill long after it went off air and thoroughly enjoyed it. Both the hubby and I enjoy watching the shows and movies filmed in North Carolina, which is where One Tree Hill took place. This, combined with one of my favorite topics - cults! - I knew I had to read this memoir.

I was NOT disappointed! Lenz does an excellent job chronicling her time as a teenager and young woman to help give weight to her story. Cults/high-control groups are tricky to prove their wrongdoing (as Lenz illustrates), which is what makes them so fascinating. You’ll love Dinner for Vampires.

Rating: 5/5

Link*: Dinner for Vampires: Life on a Cult TV Show (While also in an Actual Cult!) by Bethany Joy Lenz

If you’re interested in this, read*: Educated by Tara Westover