Vampires are all beautiful right? And strong and fast and rich. Well, not always. Not in Catherine Jinks’s latest book, The reformed vampire support group. This book has a fundamental difference to the currently hot Twilight series. The vampires are not all super-handsome, super-strong, and super-rich. In fact, they are sick. They have a virus. They can’t go out during the day and struggle to lead normal lives. I guess you could say being a vampire sucks 
(sorry, couldn’t resist)
The plain fact is, I can’t do anything much. That’s part of the problem. Vampires are meant to be so glamorous and powerful, but I’m here to inform you that being a vampire is nothing like that. Not one bit. On the contrary, it’s like being stuck indoors with the flu watching daytime television, forever and ever.
Nina, who narrates the story is 51 years old. But as she was only a teenager when infected, she still appears to be a teenager. She never learned to drive and everyone treats her like a kid. They also frown upon the novels she writes – about a vampire heroine. Some of her friends were infected when elderly, so they are stuck at that age – complete with unstable hips. All the vampires struggle with various manifestations of their sickness along with the effort to resist the urge to “fang” people. Hence their attendance of the Reformed Vampire Support Group.
But their lives are turned upside down when one of their number is killed. It now seems there is a vampire hunter on the loose and this ragged bunch of sickly vampires go in search of answers.
The reformed vampire support group provides an alternative vampire world to the more typically glamorous portrayal and is a reasonably fun read. When I first saw the book, it made me think me of Jinks’s earlier Evil genius and Genius squad. It did have a similar feel to them but is not quite up to their standard. However, it’s still worth a look if you can’t get enough vampires, or want a less shiny vampire world. It’s also a good vampire option for younger teens.
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hey i am doing a book report… and i was just wondering what you would say the theme of this book would be i cannot figure it out… thanks!
It’s a long time since I had to write and essay about a book and to be honest I was more of a maths & science guy at school.
But in Reformed vampire you could maybe look at themes of stereotypes and preconceptions in the way people expect vampires to be.
Maybe tolerance and acceptance for similar reasons and also in the way the vampires are quite different personalities but are thrust together and need to co-operate.
Along those lines you could maybe also run with friendship and trust, stuff like that.
Hopefully that helps a little bit.