My Two Cents (Book Review): THYRST FESTIVAL by C. Lenz

This review from last year popped up on my Facebook feed memories today, and I realized at that time, I hadn't yet started my blog. So, I'm sharing here today because if you like vampire stories of the bloodthirsty and not romantasy variety, you need to check this one out.

A crowd of social media influencers, trust-fund heirs, and crypto-currency investors pay tens of thousands of dollars per person to flock to a tropical island for an over-hyped music festival extravaganza. Grace, the beleaguered personal assistant to one of these spoiled, privileged attendees, finds it oddly suspicious that said festival bills itself as being "nothing like" the disastrous Fyre Festival in 2017. She also finds is peculiar that the beautiful mansion on said tropical island, where her influencer employer and the other A-list investors of the event are to stay, looks a little rundown and careworn upon close inspection. And what, she wonders, is up with all of the festival employees, who seem to remain eerily silent all the time -- not to mention with their boss, Julius, who keeps looking at her in this weird, creepy way? It doesn't take long for Grace to put two and two together: Julius and the gang are vampires. And not in the sparkly, Twilight-kind of way. They've been alone on that island for a long, long time. And they're HUNGRY.

"Thyrst Festival" is a fun, gory rollercoaster ride. Lenz's writing draws you in from the opening page, and her return to the old-school style of vampire is a welcome respite from the "kinder, gentler," more romanticized versions that have become mainstream over the years. With "Thyrst Festival," Lenz reminds us that these are creatures that have terrorized and terrified people for centuries -- and why.

"Thyrst Festival" is available here.