Synopsis
A woman must learn to take life by the throat after a night out leads to irrevocable changes in this juicy, thrilling novel from the USA Today-bestselling author of Such Sharp Teeth and Black Sheep.
Sloane Parker is dreading her birthday. She doesn’t need a reminder she’s getting older, or that she’s feeling indifferent about her own life. Her husband surprises her with a birthday-weekend getaway―not with him, but with Sloane’s longtime best friend, troublemaker extraordinaire Naomi. Sloane anticipates a weekend of wine tastings and cozy robes and strategic avoidance of issues she’d rather not confront, like her husband’s repeated infidelity.
But when they arrive at their rental cottage, it becomes clear Naomi has something else in mind. She wants Sloane to stop letting things happen to her, for Sloane to really live. So Naomi orchestrates a wild night out with a group of mysterious strangers, only for it to take a horrifying turn that changes Sloane’s and Naomi’s lives literally forever. The friends are forced to come to terms with some pretty eternal consequences in this bloody, seductive novel about how it’s never too late to find satisfaction, even though it might taste different than expected.
Review
Life sucks. You wake up, go to work, eat, shit, sleep and repeat. And most of the time, you do all this on a form of autopilot, never really confronting the fact that you’re just living, but not really living. Yeah, sure, for most people (and very generally speaking here), you have these moments of life that make the more mundane worth pushing through.
Do you know what doesn’t suck? So Thirsty by Rachel Harrison, which is a book that questions the difference between just surviving and living life to its fullest, about catering for our wants and not just our needs.
So Thirsty follows Sloane, a thirty-something year old woman on the cusp of another miserable birthday, as she heads off on a getaway with her best friend, Naomi, organised by her cheating husband. Whilst there, they encounter a group of vampires, and things take a turn that change their lives forever. Now, from the off, this isn’t a book where the vampires are uber scary. They aren’t the kind of Barlow type vampire, terrifying and monstrous beyond understanding. Neither are they brooding vampire who only want love ala Edward Cullen. Really, they feel very human, more akin to Dracula’s “brides” in S.T. Gibson’s A Dowry of Blood. This group they encounter are humorous, multi-faceted, have a deep history with one another with their own wants and desires, yet bound together by a shared bond. It’s a very post-modern take on the vampire concept – if that isn’t a too “up my own arse” thing to say. Yet they still have this sense of danger, at least to start, particularly as Sloane first interacts with them.
Sloane herself is very interesting. The book is entirely in her headspace, and it’s the mind of a person so deeply in denial about her own self that she’s struggling to claw this back, yet she is fully aware of this. It’s fascinating watching her contradict her own actions, her own thoughts, wants and needs to fit with this pre-conceived notion of who she should be. This book is very much a feminist shout of rage at societal norms surrounding women – this idea of suburbanism (if that’s even a word), of having value through how you present outwardly – particularly the whole aging woman thing and losing purpose as a woman ages. I could say I find this very thought pattern to be utterly ridiculous, which I do, but I also acknowledge that me pointing this out just makes me look like a “good guy”, a real fedora twirling “pick me” and can often actually have the opposite effect of what this is trying to challenge. I digress. Sloane’s struggles throughout with her own identity, of her own regrets and paths not tread, of settling down for what she thinks she deserves and never trying to strive for more, and vampirism acts as a metaphor for this. As the need for blood, that overpowering slam of thirst in those early days of vampirism, counters against everything she ever strived for or what she thought she should strive for, and what she really wants from life. I know this book is a feminist take on this, and I’m not detracting from that, but I feel like this sense of longing is a universal feeling in many of us. Like I said previously, I’d like to think that many of us enjoy most aspects of our lives, but there are naturally going to be things we want. To self-indulge for a moment, I think I managed to read this book at a time where I am feeling the same feelings – well, I’m not having a shitty time of life like Sloane, I’m just thinking about where I want to go in my career, how I want to explore my own writing and how to build this, what I need to do to strive for this idea of me becoming a published author etc. Even if you can’t relate to the exact things that are going on in Sloane’s life, you can definitely and would have definitely felt these feelings before.
Sloane & Naomi’s relationship is very realistic. They have this deep unspoken bond that is unexplainable, it’s more like magic really, a bond you tend to have with very few people. I loved the moments where we step away from the events unfolding before us so Sloane can reflect on her friendship with Naomi over the years. Despite them being two completely separate people on paper, throughout the story you can really begin to understand why they have this deep infatuation with each other. It’s a love that’s not romantic at all, it’s a familial love. Sloane’s relationship to the rest of the group also feels natural in both its initial first steps and its culmination. Each person in that group represents some part of Sloane even if she doesn’t know it. But one of my favourite moments is hers and Henry’s first true meeting, alone in a room in a dark house. It’s both scary & sensual. Either way, my heart was pounding!
So Thirsty is a metaphorical title. It’s about that thirst for blood, for base carnal desires, but its also that thirst for something more in life, for a life worth getting up for. Not about getting up and making a huge difference in the world, but just making a change to your own being so you can feel fulfilled in yourself. I think the question that Rachel Harrison conveys here, and the answer that it ultimately comes up with, is a hopeful one. It’s a book I’d highly recommend. Don’t go thinking you’ll be terrified or grossed out or horrified; that isn’t this book. Instead, let yourself be swept away by the characters, the message, the words between the words, and the reflective nature of this books closing few pages. I can’t wait to read more of Harrison’s works. If they make think and feel as much as this one did, then I may have found a new favourite author.
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