Blood and Chocolate (novel)
First edition cover
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| Author | Annette Curtis Klause |
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| Cover artist | Cliff Nielsen |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fantasy novel |
| Publisher | Random House Inc. |
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Publication date
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1997 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 264 pp |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 42412510 |
Blood and Chocolate is a 1997 romantic supernatural werewolf novel for young adult readers by Annette Curtis Klause. It is set in the contemporary United States.
In Klause's novel, the loups-garoux are a separate species from humans, referring to themselves as Homo lupus. Legend states that their ancestors were humans blessed by the moon goddess Selene with the power to shapeshift at will into wolves, and the urge to transform becomes painfully irresistible with the coming of a full moon. Loups-garoux are portrayed as glorious beasts who revel in their dual nature, but do not reveal this truth to humans at the risk of violent backlash. In keeping with the traditional werewolf lore, silver is poisonous when introduced into the bloodstream, often proving fatal, and death is a real danger in that "anything that will sever the spine will do".
Loup-garou is the French word for "werewolf". Its plural form is loups-garous. A faux-French plural could be loups-garoux.
Vivian Gandillon relishes the change, the sweet, fierce ache that carries her from girl to wolf. At sixteen, she is beautiful and strong, and all the young wolves are on her tail. But Vivian still grieves for her dead father; her pack remains leaderless and in disarray, and she feels lost in the suburbs of Maryland. She longs for a normal life. But what is normal for a werewolf?
Then Vivian falls in love with a human, a "meat-boy". Aiden is kind and gentle, a welcome relief from the squabbling pack. He's fascinated by the supernatural or unknown, and Vivian longs to reveal herself to him. Surely he would understand her and delight in the wonder of her dual nature, not fear her as an ordinary human would.
Vivian's divided loyalties are strained further when a brutal murder threatens to expose the pack.
The book starts out with a description from the main character Vivian, a sixteen-year-old loup-garoux. She explains about her father, the old leader of the pack, and her group of best friends, the Five. The Five consist of Rafe, Finn, Willem, Ulf, and Gregory. They are the only pack members of Vivian's age and their group used to include another boy called Axel. In their old town, the Five started to become more feral, using their wolf forms to scare humans. Vivian was afraid they might betray the pack's secret, but in the end it was Axel who lost control. Axel killed a human girl and someone saw him change back from his wolf form to human after he did it. When Axel was in prison, the Five killed another human to make it look like the "real" killer was still loose, and he was released. Vivian's father killed Axel for endangering the pack, but she pleaded with him to let the Five live. Not long after, a group of suspicious neighbors set fire to the pack's house. Vivian's father, Rafe's mother, and a few others were killed and the pack quickly had to relocate.
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