Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause
My rating: 4/5 cats
i was watching the runaways last week, and in the bonus-feature interviews, dakota fanning was all wide-eyed exclaiming how she was so excited to finally get to act in a period piece.
and i died a little inside.
but so this book, from 1997, predates twilight but somehow it involves a werewolf love story. WHAAAAAT??? (her previous novel, silver kiss, from 1992, is about a vampire – suspicious*) so, to dakota fanning these books are practically vintage, and would be the historico-literary predecessors to the sparkly ones the kids are loving today.
it’s all about perspective.
i never considered werewolves to be sexy. the shedding, the dogbreath, the teeth and claws; just not my particular fetish. however, the way this young teenage shewolf describes the changes her body undergoes during the full moon… woah. hot stuff. even when she is in human form, she completely owns her sexuality, and is aggressive and believes herself to be the most beautiful thing on either two or four legs. until her human lover sees her change, and does not agree with her ideas of beauty. (this is like a dude i dated once who wished i would dress “more feminine”, when i used to only wear combat boots and assorted badassery. and i didn’t change then, but now i only wear dresses, too late for you, guy – but i still say “fuck you, cichowicz!! fuck your standards of beauty!!”)(i have given up writing on-point reviews. deal.)
but so werewolves…
this book is actually quite good. i may have to give it an extra star cat because there were a lot of elements i liked in it, and i had to read so many just mediocre books last week, this one is surely one-star cat better than most of them. she is an excellent stylist, and i was very glad she did not give the expected ending, but was willing to disappoint a whole lot of lovestruck teenie girls with the more “appropriate” ending.
it also has one of the most romantic mid-coital lines, “i want to lay my kill at your feet.” this makes me swoon, but makes elizabeth roll her eyes and scoff. maybe you have to read all the surrounding clawing and nipping and rolling around on the bed bits. (science fact learned from this book: when two werewolves bang, they can either be human or wolf or some sort of inbetween. convenient.)
i don’t know what else, but any teen fiction book that starts out with quotes from both hesse and kipling has gotta be good, right?? right??? add to that a vicious female protagonist who will literally claw your eyes out if you get in her way, and i think we have a winner.
* also suspicious is the mother in this book is named esmé like the mother in that tremendously popular teen vampire series; a name i used to love. salinger is forever sullied for me, thanks, supernatural teen fiction moms…
** i have been told “you really CANNOT write a review of a book with that title and NOT include some reference to Elvis Costello.
I suggest this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcU38D…
please go add this to your review now!!”
woof! i obey connor.
