CW: torture

Holly’s first 30ish years as a vampire were pretty great, roaming around America with her maker/dreamy boyfriend, Elton. Then it all turned to shit when he got bored and abandoned her at a truck stop. Now, Holly’s alone, compelled to follow Elton from town to town (one of the vampire rules specific to this story), so she’s currently back in her hometown for the first time since 1987.

Holly isn’t the only girl that Elton’s turned into an eternal teenager. Ida and Rose (turned in the 1920s and 1950s, respectively) introduce themselves to Holly one night with a proposition. If they all work together, they can kill Elton. This means they wouldn’t be dragged around the country by his whims anymore, with the added bonus that he couldn’t turn other girls into vampires, only to abandon them a few decades later.

To kill Elton, the trio have to rob a bank, rob a grave, reconcile with a former bestie, and — most importantly — convince Parker, Elton’s latest target, to not listen to him. And when Holly falls for Parker, the stakes get even higher. (Yes, that’s a vampire pun. No, vampires can’t be staked to death.)

The Lost Girls’s premise appealed to me because I love stories about women banding together to take down a very bad man. That aspect did not disappoint and I thoroughly enjoyed Elton’s takedown. I saw other reviewers compare this book to the film John Tucker Must Die, but I haven’t watched it, so I can’t confirm this comparison.

Some aspects of The Lost Girls worked well for me, especially Holly’s arc. Ida and Rose take Holly into their found family and she has to learn how to trust people again, because she’s been alone for years since Elton abandoned her. I found it particularly poignant when Holly realizes that Elton had manipulated her for so long.

“He said he was alone for a hundred years before he met me, he said I’m …” I swallowed the hurt that still lingered, even after everything Elton had done. “I’m the one who made him believe in love.”

Ida snorted. “And you bought that? Did he also tell you that you weren’t like the other girls? I bet you were a sensitive loner who read poetry for fun and snacked on hand-rolled granola.”

“Ida, stop.” Rose smacked her arm before taking my hands. The clean-cotton scent enveloped me, and I was too dumbstruck to do anything other than stare at her.

I also felt bad for Holly, because she’s always perceived as a 16 year old, which made it difficult for her to support herself since Elton stopped providing for her. As a related aside, I was amused that Holly was stuck with the crimped hair she had on the night she was turned, because I remember being jealous of girls in my school that had crimping irons.

I also liked that, in her role as narrator, Holly points out common misconceptions about vampires to the reader.

We could go out in sunlight, but since we didn’t require sleep, we were also active at night. […] Stakes in the heart didn’t kill us; they just hurt like hell for a few hours while we healed. Garlic and crosses didn’t do a thing, but I could see a vampire acting like those things repelled them if they were in the mood to play with their food. We had reflections, and we didn’t require an invitation to enter a home, but we still waited for one because that was the polite thing to do.

With these rules, Holly shows that our world’s vampire fiction exists in hers, while also making it clear how eyeroll-worthy she finds it. Between this, a reference to Alyssa Cole’s latest book, and Holly’s job at Taco Bell, The Lost Girls is very much in our current world with some vampires thrown in.

In terms of what didn’t work for me, this book is much more violent than I’d anticipated. Because vampires can regenerate body parts, there are a bunch of scenes where limbs are ripped off, among other torture tactics. Ida also likes to make crafts out of organs or other parts of her kills’ bodies. If your ick tolerance is low like mine, you’ll be grossed out pretty frequently. If that doesn’t bother you however, you might enjoy this book more than I did.

Worse than that, I didn’t feel much chemistry between Holly and Parker. This is a problem because Holly kept saying she was falling for Parker, but I didn’t really see why. They don’t spend much time together and basically announce their feelings without giving any clues to how they’ve developed. While their feelings for each other lead to a pretty spectacular twist during the climax, I wish I could have been more invested in them as a couple, because I didn’t feel much about their HFN ending. They felt more like acquaintances for most of the story, maybe friends by the time the climax rolled around.

And finally, while this feels kind of nitpicky, I kept wondering how this town could sustain six vampires (Holly, Ida, Rose, Elton, plus Elton’s two goons) without anyone mentioning all the locals going missing. They have a seriously high body count because they have to feed regularly and I was pulled out of the book every so often, wondering when law enforcement and/or the media would catch on.

Ultimately, while I enjoyed parts of The Lost Girls, I doubt I’ll read it again. Between the violence and weak romantic subplot, it was too easy for me to put down even when I was rooting for Holly, Ida, and Rose. That said, if you’re into revenge fics and if your stomach is stronger than mine, you’ll probably enjoy it.