“Besides, anticipating the worst-case scenario doesn’t prepare you for the worst-case scenario. Just gives you the opportunity to be smug in the face of disaster.”
Rachel Harrison’s So Thirsty (Berkley 2024) was supposed to be my dedicated “spooky season” read, but I was too entrenched in Booker season to get to it. Oops. In all fairness, I only selected it as my Aardvark selection because it was signed and I needed a “spooky” book for the season. If you’ve been here even two seconds, you’ll know cozy horror isn’t something I often cuddle up to. (That said – Charlaine Harris is one of my favorite types of book candy so…) The book was perfectly fine for what it is. Highly palatable, well-written, at times pretty funny, but equally forgettable. Its biggest downfall? A main character who is positively insufferable and her equally awful though for distinct reasons best friend. If I had actually liked Sloane and Naomi, I’d have enjoyed this a hell of a lot more.
Long story short – Sloane’s husband surprised her with a weekend get-away for her and her best friend, Naomi, who has been on tour with her rockstar boyfriend in Europe. His motives are almost as questionable (he can’t keep it in his pants) as why these two mid-30s women are even friends. Naomi is a spitfire, careless and wild, while Sloane is seeing disaster in everything. They end up at a house full of hot people having wild sex. Their new friends are vampires. In order to save Naomi, Sloane has them turn them both. The new vampires are “so thirsty” and what follows is a lot of Sloane judging Naomi for being thirsty and Sloane being thirsty. Folks die, blood is consumed, Sloane and Naomi are disconnected for the first time since they became friends as teens, and Sloane gets involved with a centuries old vampire. (One of my favorite parts is when she says he’s too old for her but then finds out he was turned in his 20s and decides he’s too young.)
It’s a novel of friendship and making the most of the cards you’ve been dealt, I guess, but I didn’t really care about their friendship or them. *shrugs*
It’s a perfectly fine quick read that would have been a delicious candy book had anyone other than Henry and Ilie been remotely likable.
A Girl Named Tommi 