Heightened Senses
Vampire stories consist of scenes where the character begins adapting to their heightened five senses. Juliette’s puberty comes with these changes that will demand the first kill into becoming a full-fledged vampire. While in the world she experiences every subtle smell, sound, and taste:
“The class snickers, and Jules drops her gaze back to the paper, sluggish blood rising to her pale cheeks. But it’s hard to focus. The air in the room is stale. Her throat is dry. Someone is wearing way too much perfume, and someone else is tapping their pencil, a rhythmic metronome that grates on her nerves. Three people are chewing gum, and six are shifting in their chairs, and she can hear the shuffle of cotton against skin, the soft whoosh of breaths, the sounds of thirty students simply living.”
Glaring Differences
Juliette's older sister Elinor has had her first kill and therefore has acquired all the desirable attributes of a vampire. Only three years apart but their physical attributes are different enough to notice from afar. Jules takes notice of Elinor’s sharper qualities that she wishes to acquire after the first kill:
“Elinor’s hair is silver-blond, her eyes the deep blue of summer nights, while Juliette’s hair is a dingier shade, more straw than moonlight, her eyes a muddy blue. But it’s more than that. Elinor has the kind of smile that makes you want to smile back and the kind of voice that makes you lean in to listen. She is everything Jules wants to be, everything she hopes to become.”
Living in the Shadows
Though Juliette lives among other normal teens, she is far from being a normal human teenager. She indulges in regular food or beverages even though they are not her preferred dietary requirements. She has to live in the shadows both metaphorically and literary:
“Parties are everything Juliette hates. They are loud music and crowded rooms, food she can’t eat and booze she can’t drink, and all the trappings of the normal life she’ll never have. But she drank a full cup from the coffeepot before leaving, and at least the sun’s gone down and taken the worst of her headache with it. The world is softer in the dark, easier to move through.”
Blood Thirst
Jules has an internal conflict of whether to undertake her first kill or pursue her romantic feelings. However, her bloodthirst is stronger than she could have expected hence has to fight her physical urges too. While kissing Calliope she wishes to be a regular human but her impulses are taking over:
“There is the subtle ache in her mouth, the shallow longing of her teeth sliding out. And in that moment, between the fangs and the bite, she thinks of how she’d rather go to a movie, rather enjoy the scent of Calliope’s hair, the murmur of her laugh, rather stay in this closet and keep kissing her. Just two human girls tangled up. But she is so hungry, and her mouth hurts so much, and she is not human, and she wants to be more.”
