Dinner for Vampires: Life on a Cult TV Show (While also in an Actual Cult!)

Explore the role of friendship in Dinner for Vampires. In what ways do Joy’s friendships lead her deeper into the cult of the Family? In what ways do her friendships help her escape from the group?

Joy references a variety of older male role models and supporters throughout her life, including her father, Les, and Paul Johansson. How do these men guide her? How do their roles differ?

Joy’s creativity remains an important aspect of her character and personality. How does she express her creativity through her memoir? What connection does Joy draw between creative passion and The Role of Faith in Personal Development?

Where and how does Joy use humor in the memoir? What impact does it have on the memoir’s narrative tone?

The memoir highlights cult jargon and buzzwords as one of The Psychological Mechanisms of Cult Influence utilized by the Family. How does Joy’s treatment of them in the text impact the narrative and its portrayal of the power dynamics in the Family cult?

Discuss the significance of One Tree Hill as both a structural element and a symbol? What role does the show play in her personal arc over the course of the memoir?

Joy uses informal language like “fuck” and stylistic choices like capitalized words for emphasis in her memoir. How do these and similar choices impact the tone of the memoir overall?

What are clues that Joy provides throughout the memoir that Les is not trustworthy? How do these clues relate to the final reveal about Les’s character?