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Vampire Menstrual Syndrome: The First Cycle by S.C. Hunter

Vampire Menstrual Syndrome is the unapologetically queer-feminist supernatural comedy-horror series that no one asked for. The first day of Vanessa’s period takes a deadly turn when she is unwittingly sacrificed by a suburban cult of pretentious teenagers. After being exsanguinated, Vanessa crawls out of her shallow grave and is understandably upset. Caught in a horrible cycle of ingesting and excreting blood, Vanessa needs answers…fast. Thankfully, Vanessa’s roommate, Wyatt, is bored of his monotonous summer retail job and is a long-time fan of all things supernatural. Wyatt encourages Vanessa to investigate her own murder so that they can find some answers about her unexpected afterlife. Together, this dramatic duo will go to any lengths necessary to figure out what the hell is going on in their mundane little city. Interrogating and traumatizing teenagers? Easy. Catfishing knowledgeable strangers from a paranormal chat room? Fire off some eggplant emojis. Befriending an occult horticulturalist? That’s a green thumb’s up. Rubbing elbows with a pompous warlock? If they must. However, with each misguided step into the Underworld, Vanessa gradually realizes that her murderer—her maker, is trying to hunt her down. Unearth a conspiracy as old as sexism itself or survive long enough to have an afterlife crisis? Hopefully, those two options aren’t mutually exclusive. Vampire Menstrual Syndrome…and you thought cramps were bad. Content Warnings: The First Cycle, as the name implies, is the first book in the trilogy lovingly known as VMS. As a result, this book has a cliff-hanger ending. This book contains scenes of graphic violence and body horror, hard drug and alcohol use, talk of dysphoria, experiences of queerphobia and microaggressions (in the past), flashbacks of war, death, non-stop period talk (yes, clots and all), and, of course, blood. This book also contains queer romantic tension, steamy make-out scenes, and nudity--with a proposed spice rating of 1 chili pepper.