In CoLS there is a scene in which Simon is starving for blood because he hasn't fed since the previous day, and we have already seen multiple times how this kind of situation tends to escalate when it comes to vampires and Isabelle instead of letting him go look for animal blood, she offers herself like a walking blood bag.
Simon, needless to say, is slightly shocked by the proposal, especially because he fears that she might be acting in the heat of the moment and might later regret it. However, the two end up having a sincere conversation in which they clarify things: Simon makes sure that Isabelle is aware of what she is doing and that she genuinely wants it, while she reassures him that it is entirely her choice. In the end they still decide to go through with it, but only after establishing clear boundaries and mutual understanding. The result is a scene built on trust and communication, a scene that does not come across as disturbing, but rather surprisingly tender in its strangeness.
And I find it interesting and even intentional that just one chapter earlier cc showed us something similar, but with Sebastian as the protagonist. While reading, I could not help but draw a direct parallel with the scene involving Sebastian, the vampire girl and the mundane girl he brings back to his apartment to have fun.
Sebastian and the vampire have the mundane to offer herself as well like a walking blood bag. And superficially, the situation might seem like nothing more than an unconventional kinky encounter, but the point is that the mundane does not understand what she is consenting to, and Sebastian himself admits that she was frightened at first, only to dismiss it afterward by saying that in the end she liked it. But the fact that the bite eventually produces pleasure does not change anything, because that pleasure is artificially induced. Vampire bites essentially function like a drug, and a person under the influence of a substance cannot be considered capable of giving consent, a chemically altered pleasure cannot be used as proof of consent, on one side we have Simon and Isabelle build intimacy through communication, mutual understanding and conscious choice; on the other Sebastian operates within a dynamic in which a person's will is distorted and ignored.
And that's why one scene feels intimate and even strangely tender, while the other comes across as unsettling, despite the fact that on the surface both can be read in the same way
Although, of course, these books themselves have nothing to do with the complexities of consent, it is interesting and nice that co has added references to reality here and there, which give depth to the story without weighing it down: such as the difficulties faced by gay people in a closed and bigoted society, or the issues Maia faced during adolescence for being the daughter of a white woman and a black man... or this.
It is all very real, even though we are reading a story about demons, vampires, houses traveling through dimensional cracks and similar things.
