Blood and Chocolate

by Annette Curtis Klause

[empressbrooke]

Blood and Chocolate is a well-loved YA werewolf novel, and I've been meaning to read it for the last decade. Now that I have, I'm really disappointed.

Vivian is a 16-year-old werewolf who's torn between her pack and fitting in with the human world (and a human boy). Vivian is also selfish, arrogant, dramatic, and stupid. Over and over we hear her thoughts on how beeeeaaaaauuuuutiful she is and how all the boys want her. Every action she takes endangers someone and she only ever focuses on her own needs, despite the other characters cooing over how she shows such concern for the pack. I was ready to rip off her "tawny" hair before I was halfway through the book.

The writing is painful too; Annette Curtis Klause writes like some of the teenage fanfiction writers I've encountered. The dialogue is unnatural, and people act in ways that they just wouldn't in real life. She uses awkward terminology (such as referring to a gift from Vivian's boyfriend as a "love gift"). And for the coup de grâce of stupidity, when Vivian is accused by the police of vandalism, a 24-year-old pack member provides an alibi - he tells the cops that they were having sex all night. A 24-year old...tells the cops...that he was screwing an underage high schooler. And the cops thank him and leave. Huh? What?

YA novels can be written much, much better than this. Werewolf novels can be written much, much better than this (see Kelley Armstrong's Bitten). Don't waste your time.