Dinner for Vampires + Date Night Pizza
A cult memoir and my all-time favourite pie
I want to like audiobooks. The idea of them is great. A story on the go, something you can listen to while driving, walking, working out, doing chores around the house. More often than not though, I find when I listen to them that my mind drifts in ways it doesn’t when I read physical books. Something about seeing words on a page and not being able to look at anything else in the process helps me sink into a story. Occasionally, when I want to read a book really badly, and only the audiobook is available from my library, I’ll relent and take it out. This was the case with Dinner for Vampires, Bethany Joy Lenz’s memoir of being in and escaping a religious cult. And wow I’m glad I did! This was the best audiobook experience I’ve had. The combination of the amazing narration and compelling story meant my mind didn’t drift once. I found myself taking my dogs on excessively long walks so I could just put my headphones on and listen. I cruised through it in three days, and thought about it for many after. I hope you enjoy the below review, and if you have read Dinner for Vampires, leave a comment and let me know what you thought about it.
Good Book: Dinner for Vampires by Bethany Joy Lenz (2024)
Dinner for Vampires In a Nutshell
This memoir follows Bethany Joy Lenz, a star of the teen drama One Tree Hill, through the decade she spent in the religious Big House Family cult. The book begins with Lenz’s childhood growing up as a devout Christian in Texas, and her foray into acting as a young teenager. At 20, she lands in LA and begins auditioning for TV shows. Feeling lonely in her vast new city, she’s excited to fall in with a welcoming bible study group. At one of these study evenings, she meets Les, a visiting minister from Idaho who has lost his congregation under mysterious circumstances. He is building a compound in rural Idaho for new followers he is accumulating, and soon, Lenz is invited to visit.
As her career takes off, she gradually becomes more ingrained in ‘The Family’, to the point she can not make even the most minor day-to-day decisions without permission. She’s taken advantage of financially, emotionally, physically, and cut off from her own family. The book is sharp, honest, sometimes funny, and a fascinating look into the slow crescendo of manipulations that allow a group to wrestle complete control from its members.
Dinner for Vampires in Three Words
Intriguing, eye opening
Notable Quote
“I’d been dining with vampires. No, I realized. I am the dinner.”
What I liked about Dinner for Vampires
Lenz’s audio narration
Lenz does such an amazing job of reading the audiobook. Her affinity for accents and acting skills make listening such a delight. The nuance she added to different characters voices made it really engaging and easy to follow who was speaking. A nice touch was that the book also had certain male characters, like her One Tree Hill co-star Chad Michael Murray, record some of the recalled dialogue she includes.
How it illustrates vulnerability
I thought the most frightening part of Lenz’s story was how clear it was that Les, the cult leader, targeted her. She was isolated and looking for community, perfectly positioned to write off certain behaviours as simply ‘The Family’ showing how much they cared about her. Lenz was also on the brink of professional success, a clear mark for Les, who used millions of dollars Lenz earned on One Tree Hill to finance the cult.
Afterword
Dinner for Vampires could have ended when Lenz decides to leave the cult. But I found the afterword where she explains what its like moving through the world post-cult to be fascinating. It’s rare to hear from someone about how their day-to-day changes after being ensconced in and controlled by a group for a decade.
Good Bread: My favourite pizza
Why this bread for this book?
I call this date night pizza because it’s a little fancier than the typical tomato sauce, cheese, zucchini pie I often make. I like this pizza because it contains so many different layers of flavour. Sweetness from the caramelized onions. A tart creaminess from the goat cheese. Rich toastiness from the sesame seeds releasing their oils as the crust cooks. Fragrant basil. I thought the way these are all layered together related to the way Les slowly built his control over Lenz—small and sequential actions built on one another that eventually led to her life no longer belonging to her.
Recipe
This is one of the first recipes I’ve developed myself, and I’m very excited about it! The recipe makes enough dough for two large pizzas: I usually freeze one dough ball for another night.
Dough
1 3/4 cups of lukewarm water
4 ½ teaspoons of instant yeast
1 tbsp white sugar
1 tsp kosher salt
4 tbsp olive oil
5 cups all purpose or bread flour
Add warm water to a bowl. Add the white sugar and yeast. Let stand for ten minutes until the surface is foamy.
Add your flour, olive oil, and salt. Mix using a stand mixer or a by hand, until a smooth dough forms and all of the dry flour has been incorporated.
Lightly flour a work surface. Knead dough for five minutes until its surface is springy. If you poke a finger into the dough, the hole should slowly fill itself back in.
Let the dough rise in a warm place for 30-45 minutes. Pre-heat your oven to 450. If you’re going to use the Date Night pizza toppings below, now is a great time to caramelize your onions.
Your dough should be doubled in size. Re-flour your work surface. Tip out the risen dough. Divide the dough in half. Each half is dough for one pizza—either make both or seal one in a freezer bag, store in freezer, and save for another night.
Roll out dough.
Top with desired toppings (or follow below for date night pizza).
Toppings
5 onions
4 tbsp olive oil for onions
1 tbsp olive oil for brushing
Kosher salt
Goat cheese
1.5 tbsp honey
1.5 tbsp chili crisp
2 tbsp cup sesame seeds
Flaky sea salt & fresh basil (optional)
While the dough is rising, caramelize your onions. Slice onions thin. Heat 4 tbsp olive oil in a non stick pan on low heat. Once oil is shimmering, add onions.
Stir every few minutes. After 10 minutes, sprinkle with 2 tsp of salt.
Continue stirring every few minutes, letting the onions brown but not burn. Add more olive oil as needed. Onions should be blond to light brown, which should take roughly 40 minutes.
Add caramelized onions in small spoonfuls across the pizza. Add goat cheese in small spoonfuls in the spaces in between the onions.
Brush all exposed dough with olive oil. Sprinkle sesame seeds over dough brushed with oil.
Mix together honey and chilli crisp. Drizzle half over surface of pizza.
Bake until pizza is a deep golden colour, between 15 and 20 minutes. Remove, and drizzle the remaining honey chilli crisp mixture on top. Sprinkle flaky sea salt and fresh basil if desired. Cool for 5 minutes, slice and serve.
Looking forward:
Book I’m looking forward to reading: Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe
Music I’m looking forward to listening to: Waiting Room by Kathryn Mohr
Bread I’m looking forward to baking: Smitten Kitchen’s everything drop biscuits with cream cheese
Thank you for reading! If you liked this issue, forward along to a friend. If you hated it, please forward along to an enemy.
I have the same problem with audio books, but I find them good for very boring tasks e.g. weeding the garden. I watched Say Nothing on Disney and it was fantastic.
I can't wait to read the audio of this book! I have it on hold at the library, so I am sure it will be available a the wrong time, ha! I also am getting ready to reas Say Nothing- picked it up from the library yesterday!