Like the novels which Klausehas written which precede Blood and Chocolate, especially The Silver Kiss, Blood and Chocolate is almost an allegory for the coming-of-age of young adults who live in a world today that can be as frightening and as thrilling as the experience of reading a horror novel itself.

Klause's teenagers face many frightening experiences which have little to do with wolves, witches, ghosts, or demons—there are the temptations to succumb to other darknesses within as well. Kids grow up fast in the world Klause depicts for us. Sex is a given for young adults. Drugs and alcohol are a temptation. Vivian attends parties where marijuana smoke is thick in the air and liquor is present everywhere.

Vivian lacks few role models as far as this temptation is concerned. Her mother is often hung over as are many of the pack, the...