One Tree Hill star Bethany Joy Lenz's memoir, Dinner for Vampires, details her decade in two cults: a teen drama television show and The Big House family, a predatory religious group. Focused on her rise in the entertainment industry and, simultaneously, within the ranks of the group as she gets further ingrained, the prose is both intriguing and funny.
Lenz speedily begins with her earlier years, then slows down to give the reader a brief, but sweet, look into her first love, who she calls Blue Eyes. This ends in heartbreak, which stays with Lenz and the reader throughout the novel.
Then, she gets the reader to age 20. This is when she meets Len, the leader of the Big House Family, when she lands an audition for an upcoming teen drama titled Ravens (soon to be renamed to One Tree Hill), and when her foray into the dark sides of television and religion begins.
Len and the group take everything from her: her money, her choice, her opportunities for healthy and happy relationships, and her growing confidence. Anytime she tries to get up on her own, they shove her back down. The only bright spot in an otherwise dark and gloomy decade is the birth of her daughter.
It is by raising her daughter and seeing what she could become that leads Lenz to finally break free of this harmful group. In a badass, and comedically-described, moment of courage, Lenz grabs her bags and her baby and runs out of a hotel room while her husband (the son of the group's leader) is in the shower. She leaves him and the cult forever.
Lenz shares so openly and honestly about how everyday insecurities and questions we all have in our twenties can lead us down the same path. The path to seeking answers, spiritual parents, and stability within our community of friends and within ourselves.
By going through this journey in real-time over twenty years ago, and now again through memoir, Lenz teaches us all a valuable lesson worth reading. The answers we seek, the parenting we need, the stability we want, must be found by doing the hard thing and working things out internally (you know, with therapy to guide us). We can't heal through external means. No one else will give us the cure-all.
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