* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Both Vlad Tepes and Elizabeth Bathory were pretty unsavory characters, by all historical accounts. The novel amps this up to eleven, if anything, but suggests it was their childhood (Vlad as a ChildSoldier, Elizabeth as a [[DisabledMeansHelpless cripple]] and a disgrace to her family name) that made them so cruel. Both Vlad and Elizabeth seem very moral in childhood, even kind, until [[BreakTheCutie life just says no]].
* MoralEventHorizon: Vlad seems like a very nice, albeit unhinged, young boy, until he kills the Turkish couple who tried to give him shelter and food.
* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids: Because both main characters are very young when they first begin correspondence, it can easily read as middle-grade fiction... at first.
----