Jinks, Catherine. The Reformed Vampire Support Group. Harcourt. 2009. ISBN: 9780152066093. Gr 7 and up.
-- School Library Journal, 5/20/2009
If you're like me, the oversaturation of vampire books has created a large, festering hole in your brain. The Reformed Vampire Support Group is the perfect antidote. Side effects may include laughter, happiness, and or an uncontrollable feeling of purpose.The book centers on Nina, a vampire with anger management problems. At 15 she was "fanged" (as the book so delicately refers to it), and now lives with her mother and attends group therapy for "reformed" (non people-eating) vampires. One minor problem? That was 36 years ago. Her mother, a former bar maid, is getting on in years, and Nina is bored, so when a member of her group is killed, she's eager to get a piece of the action. But her eagerness to do something gets her and her friends tangled in a dangerous plot.
The book portrays vampires as having all the health problems one would expect to come with reanimated corpses. It's downright refreshing to have a book explore all the questions that come with being immortal. Where do you live? Won't your neighbors notice you don't age? How do you get a drivers' license? And what about dating? Having vampires acting like flawed, sickly creatures rather than all-powerful demigods is a rather novel (ha ha ha!) idea in YA lit.
I initially found the cover of The Reformed Vampire Support Group mildly unappealing. I thought it sold the book short. But after reading the book, I realized that the cover is absolutely perfect. It's perfect to the power of 12.
Catherine Jinks is a master of taking an unusual situation and writing it the way it would unfold in real life. I will eagerly be awaiting more from her.—Meghan K., age 14This review is from a member of the Teens Know "Best" YA Galley Group of the St. Paul Public Library and the Metropolitan State University Library and Learning Center (MN), a part of YALSA's Young Adult Galley/Teen Top Ten Project which uses 15 public libraries and school library media centers from across the country to provide feedback to publishers of young adult books.
