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2/10

The characters in this book left me thoroughly unimpressed. I've never encountered a story where I disliked every single 'good' character except one. Even Mrs. Green, who seemed promising, disappointed me when she turned her back on Patricia. The kids and husbands were equally terrible and unlikable. The naïvety and uselessness of the protagonist and her friends had me shaking my head and rolling my eyes. Surprisingly, the only character I found remotely interesting was James, the gross villain (I won't go into the details of this antagonist's disgusting deeds), because he wasn't frustrating and knew what he wanted/needed/wasn't out of place.
As for the plot, the excessive focus on gaslighting and 1950s-style housewifery was overwhelming and made it hard to connect with the 90s setting. I'm curious what people thought about this historical part of the book - I know the south is different than ‘the big city�, but I thought this was too far out there. The first 3/4ths of this book was just meh; I could have read just one or two chapters and known everything that was going to happen until the last fifty pages. I really just kept reading out of curiosity, and because this is my book club's book of the month. The last quarter...

*KINDA SORTA SPOILERS BELOW*

The last quarter of the book did pique my interest, however: I breezed through it because the stakes were high, there was some actual chaos (and gore), and I had to know if there was an actual vampire in this story or not (because at this point it still wasn't confirmed or if it was a metaphor). I liked that the characters were finally taking some action, and I was excited to see what the turnout would be.
The ending turned out to be pretty okay. I believe that semi-sad endings tend to resonate more than neatly wrapped-up ones because they linger in your memory (of course - there are exceptions).
And yet -
There were some important aspects left unanswered that did not feel purposeful - why was Patricia's son Blue so interested in Nazis? What did James Harris really want? He mentioned the things he needed for his 'health' but you never really knew if he was lying or exaggerating. Were there other vampires out there? Why didn't Patricia's kids try to kill themselves? Why did anyone have to get naked? How did James really convince people to 'let people in'? Why didn't he call the rats at the end? Who was James 'sucking on' during the last three years? I can answer these myself, sure, through deduction and critical thinking, but it just feels like laziness on the author's part rather than technique. I love books with open endings and mystery, but this felt stunted.