Dinner with Vampires by Bethany Joy Lenz

Let me start out by saying that prior to this book coming out, I had no idea who Bethany Joy Lenz was. I haven’t seen a single episode of One Tree Hill, nor have I watched anything else that she’s been in. I picked up this book because it has the word “cult” in the title, and I enjoy reading about cults and cult-like activities.

Thankfully, Dinner with Vampires is less “tales from Hollywood” and more “falling into a cult thinking that they’re ‘family.'” You know, typical cult maneuvers. Lenz spends the majority of the book on this, after a few chapters that serve as a small introduction to her overall early life and the beginning of her career.

After Lenz attends a fellow thespians “Bible Group” the cult part of the book begins. She described how she slowly wound up becoming a part of the group as it tried to isolate her from her parents and eventually, her One Tree Hill cast mates. By the end of the book, Lenz is somewhat free from the cult, but she never quite goes into what she’s dealing with now as far as child custody and acting.

My Thoughts on Dinner with Vampires

While I enjoyed the book, I was left disappointed. I wanted to find out what Lenz is up to now, if the cult still harasses her, and so on. I guess these could be subjects for a sequel. Another thing that disappointed me were her lack of details on the cult and its “compound.” By not providing them, as well as obscuring names in order to avoid a lawsuit, Lenz fails to truly show how the cult hooked her in. It seems like something’s missing, perhaps more distance from the events.

Also, at times Bethany Joy Lenz kind of comes across as insufferable. Her “christianity” is the main subject of the book (also making her susceptible to cults.) She only took certain roles, objected to a lot of what her character did on scene, and insisted on dressing modestly, even when in character. That, combined with her distance from her co-workers thanks to the cult, makes it seem as though she was hard to work with.

Overall, however, I felt for her at times, wanting to jump into the pages and talk some sense into her. This is what a good cult memoir is supposed to do. Lenz needed to do more of this.

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