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First of all, Blood & Chocolate, by Annette Curtis Klaus is a wonderful, sensual and scary book which deals with the werewolf-as-adolescent metaphor wonderfully. (It deserves much better than the movie it got, and there is a special level in hell reserved for the people who managed to screw it up, two levels below child molesters and people who talk in the theater.)
For those who don’t know Blood & Chocolate is about it:
"chronicles the longings and passions of one Vivian Gandillon, teenage werewolf. Her pack family, recently burned out of their West Virginia home by suspicious neighbors, has resettled in a sleepy Maryland suburb. At her new school, Viv quickly falls for sensitive heartthrob Aiden, a human--or "meat-boy," as her pack calls him. Soon she is trying to tame her undomesticated desires to match his more civilized sensibilities. But Vivian's animal ardor cannot be stilled, and she must decide if she should keep Aiden in the dark about her true nature or invite him to take a walk on her wild side. Klause poetically describes the violence and sensuality of the pack lifestyle, creating a hot-blooded heroine who puts the most outrageous riot grrrls to shame. Blood and Chocolate is a masterpiece of adolescent angst wrapped in wolf's clothing, and its lovely, sensuous taste is sure to be sweet on the teenage tongue."
(summery from amazon.com because I’m lazy.)
Rereading this novel recently, I was struck by two things.
First how sexual Klaus shows her heroine and her heroine’s world as being. It’s well done- Vivian is shown as being both human in her desires without diminishing the powerful sense of Otherness that makes her feel like a true loup-garou.
Secondly, how well the romance is set up.
[SPOILERS!]
Vivian spends most of the book infatuated with Aiden, a human boy and annoyed with and attracted to Gabriel, a slightly older werewolf who becomes the new alpha. Vivian and Aiden have an ugly break-up after he freaks out after seeing her wolf-shape.
In another book, Aiden would be her One True Love, but in this book he’s very clearly not, and even reading this for the first time, I wasn’t disappointed that he didn’t turn out to be. Vivian's told over and over that it wouldn't work out with her and Aiden, that he's not good enough for her, that he can't truly love her, and it turns out that the nay-sayers are right.
Analyzing this, I’m a little surprised by myself; I usually hate ‘your true love is the one like you’ stories. The end of Shrek annoyed me because of that.
I usually prefer stories where the couple are different. Kitty and Cormac from Carrie’s Vaugh’s novel is a good comparison. Kitty is a werewolf, Cormac hunts the big bad things in the dark and the first time they meet Cormac is trying to kill her.
What makes Cormac different from Aiden is that while he’s human, he’s not weak.
The reason that Aiden isn’t the man for Vivian is that he can’t accept her as she is, and can’t keep up with her. (There’s two passages that perfectly illustrate this, when she runs with him and afterwards pretends to be tired though she’s not, and when she recollects that she was always wishing he would bite instead of kiss.)
While I don’t prefer like-must-be-with-like stories, I want my couples to be equal. In Fast Woman, by Jennifer Crusie, the heroine at one point reflects that she could push against the hero and he wouldn’t bend, that he was someone who she wouldn’t have to lessen herself to be with.
It’s the same reason that Buffy is always drawn to vampires; because she needs someone equal to her strength, and most normal men can’t keep up.
So, what do you think? Do you like your couples to be of the same species? Should Aiden have been Vivian’s one true love? (He did give her kindness at a time when she was starving for it.) Do you think my opinion on why Buffy goes for vampires are valid?
Hit me.
For those who don’t know Blood & Chocolate is about it:
"chronicles the longings and passions of one Vivian Gandillon, teenage werewolf. Her pack family, recently burned out of their West Virginia home by suspicious neighbors, has resettled in a sleepy Maryland suburb. At her new school, Viv quickly falls for sensitive heartthrob Aiden, a human--or "meat-boy," as her pack calls him. Soon she is trying to tame her undomesticated desires to match his more civilized sensibilities. But Vivian's animal ardor cannot be stilled, and she must decide if she should keep Aiden in the dark about her true nature or invite him to take a walk on her wild side. Klause poetically describes the violence and sensuality of the pack lifestyle, creating a hot-blooded heroine who puts the most outrageous riot grrrls to shame. Blood and Chocolate is a masterpiece of adolescent angst wrapped in wolf's clothing, and its lovely, sensuous taste is sure to be sweet on the teenage tongue."
(summery from amazon.com because I’m lazy.)
Rereading this novel recently, I was struck by two things.
First how sexual Klaus shows her heroine and her heroine’s world as being. It’s well done- Vivian is shown as being both human in her desires without diminishing the powerful sense of Otherness that makes her feel like a true loup-garou.
Secondly, how well the romance is set up.
[SPOILERS!]
Vivian spends most of the book infatuated with Aiden, a human boy and annoyed with and attracted to Gabriel, a slightly older werewolf who becomes the new alpha. Vivian and Aiden have an ugly break-up after he freaks out after seeing her wolf-shape.
In another book, Aiden would be her One True Love, but in this book he’s very clearly not, and even reading this for the first time, I wasn’t disappointed that he didn’t turn out to be. Vivian's told over and over that it wouldn't work out with her and Aiden, that he's not good enough for her, that he can't truly love her, and it turns out that the nay-sayers are right.
Analyzing this, I’m a little surprised by myself; I usually hate ‘your true love is the one like you’ stories. The end of Shrek annoyed me because of that.
I usually prefer stories where the couple are different. Kitty and Cormac from Carrie’s Vaugh’s novel is a good comparison. Kitty is a werewolf, Cormac hunts the big bad things in the dark and the first time they meet Cormac is trying to kill her.
What makes Cormac different from Aiden is that while he’s human, he’s not weak.
The reason that Aiden isn’t the man for Vivian is that he can’t accept her as she is, and can’t keep up with her. (There’s two passages that perfectly illustrate this, when she runs with him and afterwards pretends to be tired though she’s not, and when she recollects that she was always wishing he would bite instead of kiss.)
While I don’t prefer like-must-be-with-like stories, I want my couples to be equal. In Fast Woman, by Jennifer Crusie, the heroine at one point reflects that she could push against the hero and he wouldn’t bend, that he was someone who she wouldn’t have to lessen herself to be with.
It’s the same reason that Buffy is always drawn to vampires; because she needs someone equal to her strength, and most normal men can’t keep up.
So, what do you think? Do you like your couples to be of the same species? Should Aiden have been Vivian’s one true love? (He did give her kindness at a time when she was starving for it.) Do you think my opinion on why Buffy goes for vampires are valid?
Hit me.