Blood and Chocolate

September 6, 1999
When a 16-year-old werewolf falls in love with a human, she begins to live uncomfortably between two worlds. Klause propels her bloodthirsty tale with "darkly sexy prose and suspenseful storytelling," said PW. Ages 14-up.

August 13, 2007
Klause, Annette Curtis. Blood and Chocolate. Random Children's Bks. 1997; reprint. Delacorte Bks for Young Readers. 264p. pap. ~Vivian is a hot-blooded, teenaged werewolf, torn between the sweetness of her "meat boy" Aiden and the heat of Gabriel, the new leader of their pack of loups garoux. Why It Is Great: Ten years before Stephenie Meyer's Twilight, Klause made readers swoon with her tales of teen vampires and werewolves in love. Her first novel, The Silver Kiss (1992), used vampires as a metaphor for death and grief. Lovely stuff. Why It Is for Us: Blood and Chocolate is, on one level, an unironic feminist manifesto. With her sexual self-confidence and sensual description of werewolf physicality, Vivian is the anti-Bella some Twilight fans are looking for..

July 31, 1997
Sixteen-year-old Vivian isn't fiction's most likable heroine, and not only because she's a werewolf. She's preoccupied with admiring her own "full breasts, small waist tawny hair." She's viciously competitive with other girls, gloating, "Look at me.... I've got him. You don't. Too bad." Her pack, temporary leaderless and dislocated after the death of her father, is living in some low-rent Maryland suburbs. Expected to mate with one of the rowdy, blood-hungry werewolves her own age, Vivian rejects them as well as 24-year-old Gabriel, who flirts with her aggressively as he prepares to assume leadership of the pack. Instead, she nourishes a crush on a "meat boy" (human) from school, a retro-hippie poet-type who professes a yen for the supernatural. With the darkly sexy prose and suspenseful storytelling that gave such luster to The Silver Kiss, Klause lures readers into the politics of the pack, their forbidden desire for human flesh and the coming of age of their future queen. Though some readers may be alienated by Vivian's self-absorption, and others shocked by her eventual union with Gabriel, most will find this sometimes bloody tale as addictive as chocolate. Ages 14-up.

December 1, 1997
Gr 9 Up-In the thick of her pack's leadership struggle, a 16-year-old werewolf complicates matters by falling for a human "meat-boy." A provocative exploration of a young woman's psyche in the flesh and "in her pelt." (Aug.)

August 1, 1997
Gr 9 Up-A vivid portrayal of a young female werewolf coming of age. Vivian's father was killed in a fire that was the result of one pack member's thirst for human blood. The pack flees to regroup and select a new leader. At a new school, Vivian is attracted to Aiden, a sensitive human "meat-boy." With the pack in disarray, her mother's grief, and her loneliness, Vivian reaches out to him, believing that he will understand and love her even when she reveals herself "in her pelt." Therein lies the premise for this powerful story. The book is well constructed with visual imagery and deft descriptions. Klause's representation of the pack as a microcosm of society reveals the fragile nature of human behavior and emotions. Teens are shown that they can make mistakes and survive as they test the waters of friendship, love, belonging, and trust. The character's growth and development drives the plot, which sustains and creates moods that move readers from excitement to despair to hope. And throughout, they struggle between fascination, empathy, and revulsion with "werewolf culture." Few recent novels involve readers in such multiple levels of engagement. The climax is bittersweet and poignant. There are sexual overtones, both subtle and overt as Vivian's sexual awareness surfaces in scenarios throughout the book, as she struggles between human flirtation and her animal nature. There is no doubt that Blood and Chocolate is gripping, thrilling, and original. It is delicious and smooth, like chocolate, but only a good novel, like good chocolate, is this satisfying.-Molly S. Kinney, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh