“Her fangs bit into me, hard, and I cried out at the brief flare of pain. Then it faded, replaced by a wonderful, golden joy that spread through my body. It was better than any of the times I’d been drunk or high. Better than sex—or so I imagined, since I’d never done it.”

Rose’s experience of allowing Lissa to drink her blood draws on a long literary tradition of linking the concepts of vampires, blood, and sex. Despite Rose’s flirtatious reputation at school, she nonetheless embodies the “virginal victim” trope that is a traditional part of vampire narratives. However, this connection becomes more complicated given that Lissa is her best friend, not a sexual partner.

“Feeling Lissa’s emotions was one thing, but slipping into her was something we both despised. She saw it as an invasion of privacy.”

Rose’s understanding of the bond between her and Lissa at the beginning of the novel parallels the way in which Lissa initially rejects her own powers. As the novel continues, both friends will have to learn how to navigate this bond—and Lissa’s spirit powers—as they realize that ignoring a problem does not make it go away.

“Miss Hathaway is expendable.”

This callous comment from Rose’s principal, Kirova, shows that Rose fulfills the “best friend” trope rather than the “chosen one” trope that Lissa occupies. However, the novel provides an inversion of this trope by making Rose the protagonist of the novel, rather than a side character. Richelle Mead also builds on this inversion by illustrating the ways in which Rose is crucial to Lissa’s survival. Thus, the novel is designed to both embrace and challenge the long-standing