62 pages • 2-hour read
Crave
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Danger, Safety, and Protection
The theme of danger, safety, and protection is integral to the plot, creating multiple conflicts. From the start, Grace struggles with the dangers of the Alaskan wilderness, including flying in a small plane into the tundra, the frigid temperatures, and untamed animals, all of which are unlike San Diego. Unknown to her, Katmere is inherently dangerous, as she’s the only human in a school for supernatural creatures who can easily kill her. When she meets Jaxon, her safety is brought into question. He threateningly warns her to leave before she’s hurt, though Grace thinks he’s bullying her. When Grace protests, Jaxon relents but tells her not to “look too closely at anyone or anything” (35). She doesn’t understand his warnings or intimidating nature, which sets the tone for Grace’s naivety in the perilous place. The novel’s starting chapters, with the harsh setting, her interactions with Jaxon, altitude sickness, earthquakes, and her falling out of a tree and spraining her ankle, show the repeated theme of danger for Grace. She’s not as safe as she believes, and the hazards only increase when she finally learns that Katmere Academy is a school for supernatural beings. Compared to the vampires, dragons, and others, Grace is an easy target who cannot compete with their magical abilities.
Though Grace is in danger for the entire novel, many characters work to keep her sheltered, highlighting themes of safety and protection. Macy works diligently to keep Grace unaware of the supernatural world, trying to acclimate her cousin to the boarding school. She stops other characters from revealing words like “dragons” to her, assures Grace that the cliques are part of the students’ ingrained snobbery, and makes excuses for the weird events Grace keeps enduring, such as Marc and Quinn trying to throw her out in the snow. Macy also asks her if Jaxon hurt her, warning that “he’s dangerous” and that “you should stay as far away from him as you possibly can” (128) multiple times before accepting that Jaxon will protect her out of love. Along with Uncle Finn, Macy doesn’t plan to reveal Katmere’s truths until Grace has settled in, but Grace is injured multiple times before she solves the mysteries of her peers’ true identities. Later, after Grace’s many perilous experiences, Uncle Finn wants to send her back to California, since he fears for her life.
Most prominently, Jaxon protects Grace from life-threatening situations. He attacks Marc and Quinn before they can toss her into the snow, forces Flint to catch her from the falling tree branch, bandages her sprained ankle, uses his venom to heal her neck’s nicked artery, tackles her out of the way of the falling chandelier, breaks through the tunnel walls to defend her from Lia, and ultimately destroys Lia and Hudson so she can be safe. Likewise, Grace does everything in her power to protect Jaxon, most importantly when she cuts herself and lets Jaxon drink her blood and when she sacrifices herself to shield Jaxon from Hudson’s attack by turning into her gargoyle form.
Romance and Desire
This paranormal YA romance/fantasy novel utilizes romance tropes throughout the storyline. Tracy Wolff imbues every scene between Grace and Jaxon with obvious longing; even when they first meet and Grace stands up to Jaxon’s rudeness, they can’t resist each other. They embody the enemies-to-lovers trope, in which the protagonists disagree fiercely before they give into their feelings for one another. The trope of desire, of feeling so connected to someone before even knowing them well, develops their relationship from the beginning. Fitting with the themes of protection and danger, Jaxon at first tries to resist Grace for her own safety. He also often disappears right before their intimacy heightens.
Wolff uses descriptive sensory language to convey the desire building between Grace and Jaxon: “He…brings his thumb to his lips and—holding my gaze with his own—sticks his thumb in his mouth and slowly sucks off the blood. It’s the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen, and I don’t even know why” (64). These scenes describe the characters’ actions in detail and simultaneously record Grace’s thoughts and feelings about them. The first-person point of view makes this possible because Grace narrates from inside the experience, giving the reader immediate access to physical and emotional responses.
Their romance builds naturally through their care for each other, and they share their first passionate kiss in Jaxon’s room, a satisfying first moment of physical intimacy that readers have waited for. Wolff controls the building of their romance through narrative pacing, creating obstacles that both delay their union and force them to be in proximity.
From their first kiss onward, Grace and Jaxon grow closer emotionally, mentally, and physically, exemplifying the romance genre. They balance each other well, with Grace’s feisty, brave nature and Jaxon’s secret vulnerability.
As the title Crave suggests, Grace and Jaxon’s main point of connection is physical. This is a convention of vampire romance narratives, as an almost supernatural force draws the human character to the vampire love interest. Even more important than the first kiss in this genre is the first bite, and Grace narrates this using sensual details:
Pleasure like molten honey pours through my veins, lighting up my nerve endings and swamping me with an intensity, a need I never imagined existed. [...] I sag against him, letting him hold me up with his long, lean body and firm arms as I tilt my head to give him better access. He growls at the invitation, a deep, rumbling sound that burrows deep inside me even as the ground shakes a little beneath my feet. And then the pleasure increases, lighting me up, turning me inside out, making me tremble even as I forget how to breathe. [...] I’m desperate for more… (329).
These romantic descriptions occur countless times in the book. Grace and Jaxon both fall deeply in love and would sacrifice anything for the other, including their lives, which nearly happens in the novel’s climax and resolution.
Differing Reactions to Grief and Loss
Multiple characters experience grief and loss in the novel, which connects some and alienates others. For instance, Grace connects suffers the loss of her parents in a car accident. After losing them, she has a new, grateful perspective about life, which makes her courageous rather than afraid. Grace believes that if her parents could die in an accident, then no one is safe at any time. This outlook helps her handle major and minor conflicts without flinching. She sums up this attitude when she tells Jaxon, “There’s not much to be afraid of when you’ve already lost everything that matters” (33). Her grief shapes her into a more mature, insightful person who has the emotional and mental strength to handle the most painful scenarios.
The theme of loss is also integral to Jaxon and Lia, who both lost Hudson. Grace connects with Jaxon and Lia because they all share a common experience of deep grief, of “absorb[ing] the fact that someone else hurts as much as we do” (97). They can relate and empathize with each other on an authentic level. However, Jaxon and Lia have opposite reactions to their loss. Jaxon feels extreme guilt and unworthiness due to his killing Hudson, even though he knew it was for the greater good. Lia became vengeful after Hudson’s death and wants to continue his cause of having vampires rule over everyone. To accomplish this, she tries to kill Grace, continuing the cycle of destruction.
Grief causes numerous flashbacks for Grace, which undermines her strong exterior and shows her emotional vulnerability. She welcomes her new life in Alaska, where she can escape the painful memories in San Diego, but she still often thinks of her parents. In many moments, she reflects on cheerful memories with them. Something in the current scene usually triggers these memories. For example, when Grace and Lia have tea, Grace recalls her mom’s homemade tea collection and love for crafting the perfect blend. When she hears a certain song, she thinks of how her dad played it every Sunday while cleaning. When Macy or Uncle Finn treat her kindly, she tears up, remembering how her parents showed her the same unconditional love. Uncle Finn also looks so much like her father that she can’t stop picturing her dad. Sometimes, she wakes up thinking her parents are still alive and has to experience their loss all over again.
Despite Grace’s emotional expressiveness, she hides the depth of her grief. One day, after hearing her dad’s favorite song, she sobs in the library: “I…finally, finally let the tears come. [...] I haven’t cried, really cried, since the funeral, […]” (224). This emotional purging shows that Grace is still working through the recent loss, rather than still suppressing it like Jaxon or lashing out like Lia.
Unlock every key theme and why it matters
Get in-depth breakdowns of the book’s main ideas and how they connect and evolve.
- Explore how themes develop throughout the text
- Connect themes to characters, events, and symbols
- Support essays and discussions with thematic evidence