Review: The Reformed Vampire Support Group (Catherine Jinks)

[nebroadwe]

Catherine Jinks, The Reformed Vampire Support Group

Contrary to what you may have read in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series or the Zadia Bloodstone novels of N.E. Harris, vampires are not glamorous. Sure, they're immortal, but how would you like to be immortally prone to throwing up guinea pig blood whenever it disagrees with you or exsanguinating from the eyes if a car's headlights shine in them before you can lower your sunglasses? And while drinking human blood gives them an energy boost, it doesn't endow them with supernatural strength or speed or intelligence -- and there are lots more humans than vampires. So when Casimir Kucynski, reluctant member of the Reformed Vampires Support Group, is staked in his own coffin, his fellows (including Nina Harrison -- aka N.E. Harris) swing into action to track down the killer and persuade him or her that, just as vampires aren't glamorous, neither are they monstrous. Catherine Jinks isn't just skewering sparklepires here by imagining vampirism as a kind of autoimmune syndrome-cum-haemoholism to be managed with "enzyme supplements" and AA-style group therapy; she's also engaging in her usual character-driven analysis of moral agency. Nina's fantasy of Zadia Bloodstone, vigilante for justice, is both a perilous denial of the realities of her situation and a call to care about and for others rather than remain wrapped up in herself and her illness. The vampires' commitment to nonviolence, a practical as much as a philosophical matter, also adds an interesting twist to the stop-the-slayer plot by taking out the "kill" portion of "kill or be killed" (cf. Barbara Hambly's more traditional Those Who Hunt the Night) even when facing monstrous humans. And, of course, there's the black humor in Jinks's depiction of a group of bickering, ill-assorted, on-the-wagon vampires who've spent anywhere from thirty years to a century discussing their feelings every Tuesday night in a church basement. There's damnation for you -- the long dark AA meeting of the soul. Recommended as an antidote to sparklemania.

Comments

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

AHAHAHA. This is something I'm going to have to see.

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

I look forward to hearing what you think.