Librarian's Pick of the Week: The Reformed Vampire Support Group

Title: The Reformed Vampire's Support Group
Author: Catherine Jinks
Genre: Paranormal
Published: 2003
Age: 12+

I figured I'd recommend something a little lighter. And what better than a vampire comedy?

Synopsis: "Think vampires are romantic, sexy, and powerful? Think again. Vampires are dead. And unless they want to end up staked, they have to give up fanging people, admit their addiction, join a support group, and reform themselves. Nina Harrison, fanged at fifteen and still living with her mother, hates the Reformed Vampire Support Group meetings every Tuesday night. Even if she does appreciate Dave, who was in a punk band when he was alive, nothing exciting ever happens. That is, until one of group members is mysteriously destroyed by a silver bullet. With Nina (determined to prove that vamps aren't useless or weak) and Dave (secretly in love with Nina) at the helm, the misfit vampires soon band together to track down the hunter, save a werewolf, and keep the world safe from the likes of themselves. The perfect anecdote to slick vampire novels, this murder-mystery comedy of errors will thrill fans of Evil Genius."

Review: "It's hard to get too involved in a cast of barely likable whiners and pathetic hand-wringers, but somehow that isn't much of a problem in Jinks' droll vampire send-up. These bloodsuckers are anything but sexy and mysterious, as here vampirism is a cross between a defining addiction and communicable disease; those infected spend most of their time being seriously ill and attending AA-style meetings with fellow sufferers. Nina, permanently arrested at 15 years old, can't stand her fellow group members, but when one of them is found staked they all must work together to uncover the slayer before he can kill again. While readers might feel pushed rather than led through the plot, Jinks offers some wry vampire-centric twists on mystery conventions (having to repeatedly piece together what happened while literally dead to the world from sunup to sundown); and when the humor hits its mark, this can be laugh-out-loud funny. Most of the comedy, though, lies in the wide-angle skewering of support groups and fringe characters more suited to hemming and hawing than biting and sucking." - Booklist


If you're intrigued, don't forget to check our library's catalog for this book!