Dinner for Vampires
by Bethany Joy Lenz
Gallery Books
Bethany ‘Joy’ Lenz was an only child who often had to fend for herself. Although brought up in a Christian family, her father moved out to marry someone else when she was in her Senior Year at high school.
When Joy graduated from the high school education factory, her mother met someone online and moved away to get married as well, leaving Joy with nowhere to live. Joy had a small acting credit and decided to try her luck in Los Angeles, auditioning for acting roles.
Joy was desperate for a place to belong to when a friend offered her a room and introduced her to a bible studies group. So, the first part of her book is about being adopted into God’s Kingdom and feeling accepted and loved by this group of people.
Joy landed a starring role in the television hit series One Tree Hill but it was difficult to explain the bonding and spiritual growth that her substitute family had brought her, so she distanced herself from the cast and crew in Hollywood.
As Joy’s career sky-rocketed, she invested in the Family business enterprises which included buying a motel to bring the Family in one place; a restaurant and, of course, the Ministry which was run by three married couples.
After her marriage to the son of the chief minister, Joy’s life began to unravel. The cracks were always there but Joy couldn’t see them as she was so desperate to belong. Nobody knew about Joy’s secret double life and by the time she realised she had been handing over autonomy and normalising abuse, she had a baby to protect.
Joy finally uses her journal to write about how she lost ten years of her life to something she came to recognise as a cult. The vampiric Family had not sucked her blood, but everything else that was hers.
Fortunately, Joy writes this horrific story from a place of strength and healing.
Lezly Herbert
