Blood and Chocolate Movie vs. Book

Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause
Blood and Chocolate with Agnes Bruckner and Hugh Dancy

The book is about a family of werewolves. They have been forced to flee from their home and find a new one. Vivian, our hero, is trying to find her own way in a pack dynamic that expects certain things from her that she is not sure she wants for herself. She has a softer side that she does not see in the pack and looks to the humans to find. The pack looks for leadership and safety while trying to leave behind a bloody mistake.

The movie is not about that at all. Vivian does fall in love with a human but there is not much the same after that. She is not even the one to initiate the contact with him or pursue the relationship. Some of the things that she liked about him in the book are missing in him in the movie, his sense of ‘pack’ with his friends, the fact that he is not as rough as the guys in her pack. He has no friends in the movie and he is tougher in a running and fighting sort of way. The relationship between them is less sexually driven in the movie so in some ways seems sweeter but in the process it changes their relationship. The rules of the pack are completely different. There is a leader already and he is a bit of a jerk. And the whole outcome is completely different. So different they are almost opposites. It’s impossible to point out all the things that are different in the movie. They are just not the same story.

For that reason it is hard to say which one I liked better. I think the book is more about Vivian and her personal struggle than it is a straight werewolf story. There is more action in the movie, more fights and chases. The movie is more a physical battle for Vivian than the emotional one that she has in the book. So it depends on what you are looking for. I thought both of them were worth a look, but if you read and love the book don’t expect the same from the movie or you will be disappointed.