Comparing Klause's Blood And Chocolate

Perhaps the most sultry and sensual part of the novel is the one that challengers would not use in their attempt to remove Blood and Chocolate from school libraries. Why? Because the novel describes the protagonist, Vivian, resisting a sexual encounter with Aiden, opting for sharing her innermost secrets instead, her werewolf form. The narrator describes Vivian sliding “her panties to her knees and letting them slither down her calves … she wanted to give in to his desire . . . but her body had other plans. ‘Not yet’” (Klause 167). Proponents of banning Blood and Chocolate may be unable to substantiate their argument regarding the sexual explicitness of the novel when the very act of sex is resisted by the protagonist, and not because the two adolescents would be caught by an adult figure or some other purpose based on consequences alone. One could argue that

The credible Children’s Literature Review offers numerous Blood and Chocolate reviews that highlight the literary merit the novel has. Rachel Avers-Nelson comments that Klause’s novel is a “gripping read” that is “an excellent read for fourteen-year-olds and older. It is so compelling it lingers in the mind” (Avers-Nelson). She continues that the “text is sexually highly charged though no scene progresses beyond a kiss” (Avers-Nelson). Molly S. Kinney, also from the Children’s Literature Review, comments that “teens are shown that they can make mistakes and survive as they test the waters of friendship, love, belonging, and trust” (Kinney). She adds that “few recent novels involve readers in such multiple levels of engagement”