Thirsty
A Novel
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
There's no place like home, they say.
"Hello, I'm Nina Parker…and I'm an alcoholic."
For Nina, it's not the weighty admission but the first steps toward recovery that prove most difficult. She must face her ex-husband, Hunt, with little hope of making amends, and try to rebuild a relationship with her angry teenage daughter, Meagan. Hardest of all, she is forced to return to Abbey Hills, Missouri, the hometown she abruptly abandoned nearly two decades earlier–and her unexpected arrival in the sleepy Ozark town catches the attention of someone–or something–igniting a two-hundred-fifty-year-old desire that rages like a wildfire.
Unaware of the darkness stalking her, Nina is confronted with a series of events that threaten to unhinge her sobriety. Her daughter wants to spend time with the parents Nina left behind. A terrifying event that has haunted Nina for almost twenty years begins to surface. And an alluring neighbor initiates an unusual friendship with Nina, but is Markus truly a kindred spirit or a man guarding dangerous secrets?
As everything she loves hangs in the balance, will Nina's feeble grasp on her demons be broken, leaving her powerless against the thirst? The battle between redemption and obsession unfold to its startling, unforgettable end.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The expansion of the Christian horror genre, the proliferation of vampire lit and a couple of vampire precursors aimed at Christian readers make this Christian vampire hybrid inevitable; also inevitable will be comparisons to reigning vamp-lit queen Stephenie Meyer, starting with the book's cover. Nina Parker is a recovering alcoholic trying to put her life back together after an alcohol-fueled divorce and professional negligence as a veterinarian. Nina returns to her hometown to live with her sister, the town police chief, with her alienated teenage daughter, Meagan, in tow; the unfolding backstory of her youth explains her alcoholism. A mysterious and attractive neighbor of Nina's sister complicates the action, as do ritualistic deaths of people and animals. The novel has some technical problems: the narrative shifting of time and viewpoints could be clearer; ex-husband Hunt's point of view on the action is weak. The redemptive arc that evangelical Christian novels require is natural for a story of recovery; its full implications will surprise some readers and leave others unpersuaded. Despite some narrative flaws, Bateman has written a page-turner with a compelling vampire character that will set evangelical Christian readers talking.
