I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
So Thirsty by Rachel Harrison Published by Berkley on September 10 2024
Genres: Adult, Horror
Pages: 304
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: Rachel Harrison takes on vampires in this fun, fast-paced story about friendships and sticking together when life gets tough.
The short version:
Thelma & Louise with vampires.
The long version:
I’m a huge Rachel Harrison fan, especially since her last book Black Sheep was one of my top five favorite books of 2023. Because of that I’m always chasing that next book that will be just as good. So you can see why So Thirsty had a lot to live up to. And I ended up really enjoying it, because Rachel Harrison is an excellent writer, but it didn’t quite hit the highs of some of her previous books. Still, I had a lot of fun with it, and I’m glad the author finally tackled a vampire story (she’s done witches, werewolves and demons already).
We meet Sloan, who is about to turn thirty-six and is in crisis over her aging body (like the wrinkles and saggy skin that have suddenly appeared on her face). Despite her anxiety at celebrating yet another birthday with very little to celebrate, her husband Joel surprises her with an all expense paid weekend trip away with her best friend, Naomi. Sloan suspects Joel is cheating on her, and she can’t help but think the trip is a ploy to get her out of the house. Still, it would be nice to reconnect with Naomi, who she hasn’t seen in a while, and so the two make plans to meet up at the swanky cottage Joel reserved for them.
They settle in and decide to check out some of the bars in town, where Naomi meets an intriguing Russian named Ilie who invites them to his lake house. When they arrive, Sloan and Naomi are introduced to a group of odd characters, friends of Ilie’s, but Sloan’s sixth sense kicks in and she gets the feeling that something isn’t quite right with these people. Her fears are confirmed when a violent and unexpected accident happens and the two women are forced to make a terrible decision.
The book cover says “vampire” loud and clear, so I don’t think it’s a spoiler to reveal that Ilie and his friends are vampires, and Sloan and Naomi are about to become vampires themselves. Although Harrison uses some familiar tropes of the genre, some of the elements felt fresh to me, especially the messiness of becoming a vampire and dealing with the thirst for blood that comes with it (think True Blood rather than Buffy). The author doesn’t sugar coat anything about obtaining and drinking blood, especially when it comes to newbie vamps Sloane and Naomi, who have a desperate, aching thirst that they will do anything to assuage.
I also enjoyed the friendship between the two women, although their characters do fall into predictable patterns and tropes at times. Sloane is the oh-so-careful one who loves her boring routine and never wants to take chances, while Naomi lives for the moment, a wild child who never says “no” to an adventure. Here is where my Thelma & Louise comparison comes in, as Sloane and Naomi are forced to figure out their new lives but end up making terrible, messy mistakes along the way.
There are a couple of standout scenes in So Thirsty, but I wanted the entire book to rise to that level, and unfortunately it didn’t. My favorite parts of the story were Sloan and Naomi trying to figure out their new lives and not doing a very good job of it, like one explosive scene at a gas station that brought together all the best elements of their struggle. Other parts of the book focused on relationship drama—between Joel and Sloan, Lee and Naomi, Henry and Sloan—and just didn’t do much for me (and I’m not even going to discuss the orgy scenes, which felt contrived and sort of ridiculous).
I also didn’t like Ilie, Henry and the rest of the vampires, who were more like caricatures than fleshed out characters. Ilie in particular felt like a goofy, movie version of a vampire, and I could almost hear him saying something cliché like “I vant to suck your bloood!” I think Harrison was trying to infuse her story with black humor, but it wasn’t nearly as successful as the humor in her other books.
One of the things I love most about Harrison’s books is that she knows how to incorporate emotional, relatable themes into her stories, but So Thirsty missed the mark when it came to affecting me on an emotional level. This is a fairly short book, and I think the story would have been better if it were longer and had more time to develop some deeper themes.
Still, it’s not a bad place to start if you haven’t read this author before, and despite some of my complaints, So Thirsty is a lot of fun. It gets a solid four stars from me for the parts I loved, and I’ll be eagerly awaiting her next book.
Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.
I keep seeing this author pop up lately, so I suppose I’ll have to read something by her one day! This books looks like a good candidate…love that the main character is in her 30s!
I love her books, and I’m happy I still have two backlist titles of hers I still need to read at some point.
I can’t wait to read this!! I don’t want to know anything about it in advance, so I”m bookmarking your review to come back to after I finish. 🙂 Happy to see your 4-star rating!!
I’m looking forward to your thoughts!
I haven’t tried this author, but I am curious about this book. Big long wait though on Libby, so I won’t get it for Vamptember…lol.
I guess it’s really popular!
“I vant to suck your bloood!” Hahahaha. This sounds like a great read, although not ‘as’ great as her previous work. But as you said, not a bad place to start when you haven’t read this author yet (like me). I never get sick of vampires stories! 😀
I don’t either, bring ’em on!
You got me at “Thelma & Louise with vampires”. I’m kinda OK with silly vampires now and then.
The silly vampire parts did fit in with the humor:-)
It’s been a long time since I’ve watched it, and I suspect it’s very different from this book, but have you ever watched the movie ‘Byzantium’ from 2012? For whatever reason your review had me remembering bits and pieces of that.
I haven’t seen that movie, but now I’m curious and will look it up:-)
I was tempted to start with this book by the author as a vampire fan but you’re the second person I’ve seen say it isn’t as good as some of her previous ones so perhaps I’ll check one of those out first instead. Especially given the worrying description of Ilie. Still I’m glad you enjoyed parts of this and hope that the authors next book becomes a new favourite
Thanks Charlotte! I definitely recommend Black Sheep or Such Sharp Teeth, both are excellent:-)
So not without fault buts still enjoyable!
Yes, very enjoyable.
I think it says something that we both thought it could be longer. Still a solid read though.
Very solid, and with a bit more character development/emotional content, I probably would have rated it higher.
I am glad to see that, even if this wasn’t as good as you were expecting, ypu still had fun with this! Thanks for sharing!!
Yes, still lots of fun:-)
I’m still thinking about this one. Review tomorrow hopefully.
Happy to see you enjoyed it. I also enjoyed it but not as much as the previous two books by RH.
Lynn 😀
We had very similar thoughts. She is such a good writer, even if I didn’t love this as much.
A really great review! It’s always tricky picking up a much-anticipated book from a favourite author… Glad you still found much to enjoy, even though it didn’t necessarily tick all the boxes – it’s always a bit frustrating when the story feels as if it could benefit from a bit more depth.
Thanks Sarah:-) I definitely had high expectations for this, maybe I should have lowered them a bit:-)
So this was actually the first book I have read by the author, and I really enjoyed it (probably a bit more than you, actually!) so I am now VERY excited to get to some of her other books! I do agree about the vamps being a little stereotypical, but I did feel the emotional pieces a bit more, luckily! This also reminds me that I am very behind in my reviews and need to write mine like, yesterday heh.
Haha I definitely got to T&L vibes too. But you’re right in that her last book resulted in high expectations. This just wasn’t quite as good but still fun.
lgl3h2