49 pages • 1 hour read
Jenna LevineMy Roommate Is a Vampire
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2023A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 5-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 5 Summary
The chapter opens with an entry from Frederick’s diary, in which he expresses shame for having seen Cassie in her towel and for the lustful thoughts he then had. He wants to write an apology to her parents, as he thinks that would be the proper thing to do. He thinks the 21st century might kill him if living with Cassie doesn’t.
Cassie sleeps in to avoid seeing Frederick. She then heads to the co-op studio she shares space in and runs into Sam’s husband Scott there. He tells her about an upcoming modern art competition with a $1,000 prize and encourages her to submit a piece of her art. Cassie decides to enter.
At home, Cassie and Frederick exchange flirtatious notes, and Cassie leaves drawings on her notes that charm Frederick. Cassie asks Frederick to call her Cassie in the notes instead of “Miss Greenberg,” and he agrees. Frederick receives a number of strange packages from a sender named E.J. that seem to emit smoke or rattle like snakes, but Cassie does not open them.
Cassie hangs her seaside art series up on the wall, replacing the antiquated hunting party painting on the wall. She wakes Frederick by hammering the nails into the wall. He arrives in her room and they discuss her art, as he is confused why it’s made of trash. Cassie explains her artistic vision and her desire to take things others throw away and make them meaningful. He stands close to her, and she notices a moment of romantic tension between them. He then says he’s hopeless at understanding modern art and leaves.
Chapter 6 Summary
The chapter opens with a letter from Frederick to his mother Edwina, informing her about Cassie and asking her to end the arrangement she’s made with a woman named Miss Jameson.
Cassie and Frederick continue to exchange flirtatious notes. Cassie has a busy few days, with a Night at the Museum event at the library and a dinner at Sam’s, so she tells Frederick she will not be around very much for a bit and asks him to take the trash out. She gets halfway to the library before she realizes she forgot her sketchpad.
When she returns home, she opens the fridge and finds bags and bags of blood. The smell nauseates her, and she is so shocked she doesn’t hear Frederick and Reginald arrive. Frederick is surprised by Cassie’s presence, as he thought she’d be at the library. As Frederick struggles to explain, Reginald drinks a bag of blood in front of Cassie, revealing his fangs. Frederick confesses he is a vampire and hints at the fact that he is over 200 years old. Frederick promises he never intended to hurt Cassie, but she is still afraid and flees to stay at Sam’s, telling Frederick he can throw out her stuff if he wants to.
Chapter 7 Summary
The chapter opens with a text exchange between Reginald and Frederick. Reginald tells Frederick it was wrong to not tell Cassie about his vampirism, and Frederick realizes that he has feelings for Cassie after Reginald prods him.
At Sam and Scott’s condo, Cassie sleeps on the couch. She receives a letter from Frederick apologizing and offering to let her collect her things when he’s not home. His letter is kind and earnest, which makes Cassie reconsider her decision to leave. Sam asks her what happened, and Cassie cannot explain. He tells her that he trusts her judgment, but to be careful.
Cassie goes to the recycling center to forage for items for her new art piece and calls Frederick. He apologizes for not being honest with her and offers to meet up and explain. She agrees, and they plan to meet at Gossamer’s that night.
Chapter 8 Summary
The chapter opens with a letter from Frederick’s mother Edwina informing Frederick that he must send Esmeralda Jameson, the vampire woman sending him the strange gifts, some gifts in return. She also states that it’s dangerous for him to live with a human woman and thinks that his century of slumber (hinting at his century of sleep) has made him careless. It then transitions to a text exchange between Frederick and Reginald that reveals that Frederick has sent all the “gifts” to Reginald.
Cassie arrives at Gossamer’s and sees Frederick sitting nervously. Frederick can smell the cut on Cassie’s hand that she got while sifting through objects at the recycling center. He asks to see it, but Cassie tells him she doesn’t want a vampire looking at her bleeding wound. Frederick tells her that he hasn’t ordered coffee in over a hundred years, so Cassie helps him order. He tries to pay with gold coins, so Cassie pays for the coffee as Frederick does not understand modern money.
Frederick then tells Cassie about his past: Reginald accidentally put him into a century-long coma while trying to practice turning wine into blood. He is still somewhat weak from the coma, so though sunlight is only mildly unpleasant for most vampires, it’s more draining for him. That’s why he is nocturnal. Now, Frederick has no understanding of modern society, so he hoped to get a human roommate to help him learn how to blend in. He will never harm Cassie, as he has not drunk from a human in over a century, only drinking blood from the blood bags he and Reginald steal from blood banks.
Cassie agrees to help him, as she finds that she trusts him. She agrees to move back in as well, on the condition that Frederick keeps his blood bags in his room. He says he will and promises Cassie will never see the blood nor see him feed.
Chapters 5-8 Analysis
Frederick’s character becomes further clarified throughout the novel via the glimpses of his text conversations, letters, and diary entries that begin many of the chapters, invoking The Challenges of Adapting to Different Lifestyles. Frederick is often confused by the changing social norms he is experiencing after his long coma, particularly regarding propriety between men and women.
After Cassie and Frederick’s half-dressed encounter after Cassie’s shower, Frederick writes in his diary about his struggle with his feelings for her: “I sit at my desk at 2 in the morning, desperately trying to remind myself that Miss Greenberg is a lady. A lady whose beauty far surpasses what I noticed when we first met […] but a lady nonetheless” (65). There are two warring sides in Frederick: The part of him that wants to adhere to the ideals of propriety that he is used to from the 19th century, and the part of him that wants to pursue Cassie romantically without inhibitions. He is conflicted by his notions of decorous behavior and gentlemanly conduct and by the desires of his heart.
Frederick’s feelings for Cassie are reciprocated, though Frederick does not realize this yet, which creates a situation of dramatic irony. Their mutual attraction also hints at Long-Term Compatibility Despite Surface-Level Differences. When Cassie hangs her art in her bedroom, Frederick enters and asks her about her art, a moment that slowly becomes rife with romantic tension until Frederick leaves: “There was a sweet, electric anticipation in the air that hadn’t been there before. I wasn’t sure I had words for what it was. All I knew was that I wanted to feel it again” (83).
Cassie lacks the language to explain the “electricity” between her and Frederick, electricity that results from their mutual romantic desires mingling together. On paper, Cassie and Frederick could not be more different. Frederick is a 250+ year old vampire with no notion of how to exist in the present, while Cassie is a 32-year-old whose work and life are very modern. Despite these differences, their burgeoning romance still thrives, as they treat each other with respect and take a genuine interest in getting to know one another. For example, although Frederick struggles to understand Cassie’s modern art, he nevertheless tries to give it a chance, which shows that he is curious to learn more about Cassie’s creative passions.
However, the largest obstacle to the development of their relationship is the revelation of Frederick’s vampiric identity. Cassie initially struggles with the reality of vampires. Even after Reginald drinks blood in front of Cassie, she thinks, “I still needed to hear [Frederick] say it, though. After a lifetime of thinking people like Frederick only existed in young adult novels and old horror movies, it was the only way I’d believe what I’d seen with my own two eyes” (95). Levine’s construction of this scene mirrors a scene in Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight, in which Bella Swan demands that Edward Cullen say aloud that he is a vampire. Levine engages with this scene meta-textually, as Cassie’s thought about “young adult novels” is a clear reference to the genre pioneered by Meyer’s Twilight. In referencing both a specific moment from Twilight and the existence of Twilight generally, Levine places her own novel in the canon of vampire romance literature, playfully illustrating how My Roommate is a Vampire belongs in the genre.
