Annette Curtis Klause

1 universe Last reviewed 2026-09-05

Annette Curtis Klause was born June 20, 1953, in Bristol, England, and holds dual British-American nationality; she has long resided in Hyattsville, Maryland. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in English literature and a Master of Library Science from the University of Maryland, College Park, training that shaped her career as a children's and young-adult materials selector for Montgomery County Public Libraries. Between 1982 and 1994 she also contributed book reviews to the School Library Journal, giving her an insider's view of the young-adult publishing landscape she would go on to help define. Klause is best known for pioneering dark, romantic young-adult fantasy and horror. Her debut novel, The Silver Kiss (1990), paired a grieving teenage girl with a centuries-old vampire and is frequently cited as a foundational text of YA paranormal romance, predating the genre's later mainstream boom. She followed it with the science fiction adventure Alien Secrets (1993), before publishing her most celebrated work, Blood and Chocolate (1997), a werewolf coming-of-age novel that was later adapted into a 2007 feature film. Her later novel Freaks: Alive on the Inside (2006) moved into historical fiction, following a sideshow performer in Victorian-era America. Across her body of work, Klause is noted for combining sensuous, atmospheric prose with sympathetic portrayals of monstrous or outcast protagonists, and for treating teenage desire and grief with unusual candor for the genre and era in which she began publishing.

Universe(s)

Books

• Blood and Chocolate (1997) · Blood and Chocolate Core Canon

Aggregate across all universes

• Total Core Canon books across all universes: 1 book
• Award recognitions across all universes: 1 (1 won)

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