A Ruin of Roses

“I’d heard that creature before. I’d actually even seen it as I was panic-sprinting home one time. Its goal was to lure do-gooders. People came to help, and it killed them.

Or that was how it clearly thought its ruse would go. Except all knew that in the Forbidden Wood, it was everyone for themselves. There were no do-gooders here.”

After years of braving the wood and running from the horrors contained in the Forbidden Wood, Finley has learned to identify specific demons by sound, highlighting her skill as a hunter and bolstering her affinity for traditionally male roles. These lines also show how Finley has come to believe that the curse precludes altruism—a false belief that she will overcome later in the novel.

“First of all, our library is small and limited, and before the curse, people weren’t looking to learn about their shifter traits from books. They learned about that from their peers. So it makes sense that we wouldn’t have many volumes on shifter functionality. I know that because I whined about it, and that’s what I was told. Second, those that are carried are histories focused on the nobles and kings and queens and important people. They marry for money and power. They don’t give a shit about love. Common people like us have a better chance at finding our true mate.”

As Finley points out, knowledge about shifters before the curse would have been shared orally, not written in reference books, and this highlights how everyday information is often lost to a group. Further, these lines show how history disproportionately focuses on those with the resources to write down their history (nobles), meaning that written records tend to focus more on them and less on people who lack similar resources.

“Apparently in his eyes, and in the eyes of most of the people in the village, a proper wife didn’t hunt better than her husband, or at all. She didn’t tan hides, play with knives, and wear trousers. Nor did she look after villagers ailing from the curse’s sickness more than she would tend to her husband’s less-than-dire needs. This was because she would’ve (apparently incorrectly) assumed her husband was an adult and didn’t need a nursemaid to wipe his mouth and assure him he was the master of the universe. Silly her.”

Prior to this excerpt, Finley reflects on and how her ex-boyfriend left her to marry a woman who matched his idea of what a wife should be. These lines represent Finley’s unwillingness to conform, suggesting that Escaping Restrictive Gender Norms is a key component of her character arc.