This isn’t a story about urban vampires, though that is used as a metaphor in the story. This is a book about how men alienate and mistreat women, expect them to run their lives but don’t value their opinions, and gaslight them to the point where they don’t trust their own thoughts, or each other. It’s a story about male incompetence and how it always ends up being a woman’s fault. I am really enjoying the story because it feels so real. I feel for Grace, she is holding it together as best she can while her husband beats her behind closed doors. All these women are doing their best in the face of their troglodyte husbands ineptitude, and trying to be what society expects of them in spite of that. I hate Carter and what he has done to Patricia. He is a bad husband, a bad father, and a perfect example of the patriarchial “man of the house”. Useless, ignorant, and controlling.