“Five generations ago, [the masks] were no more than symbols, ritualistic garnishments only worn during Vow ceremonies. As time progressed, and New Found Haven became more stratified, they began to be used as tools for oppression and social control.”

This passage introduces the motif of masks and uniforms as a tool of control designed to strip Heart citizens of individuality. The reference to “oppression and social control” highlights the city’s slide from authoritarianism into totalitarianism, foreshadowing Maximus’s increasing violence.

“Fear is a solvent, Greyson—it dissolves doubt, resistance, the very concept of alternative. But only if administered pure. If you dilute it, even a little, the city will learn to adapt.”

Maximus wishes to control even the thoughts of the city’s residents, as their ability to imagine another life poses a threat to his regime. Later events confirm Maximus’s own fear: When Greyson meets Shadera and begins to see a different way of resisting, he can resist more forcefully and effectively. Maximus cannot maintain this “pure” form of fear that he desires, however, as the novel highlights that hope will persevere, even in the face of despair.

“Love has brought down empires, and your father knows it.”

One of the crimes punishable by death in New Found Haven is falling in love with someone from another district. As Callum here notes, this is because Maximus fears that love will prove stronger than fear. The novel supports this—Callum ultimately dies because he loves Lira enough to risk his life for her, and Greyson’s love for Shadera encourages him to grow bolder in his fight against his father.

“‘I am the law!’ Maximus roared.”

Maximus’s assertion articulates the novel’s critique of authoritarian regimes in which the will of a single individual becomes synonymous with the law. Ironically, his need to voice this assertion with such urgency shows that this absolutism is not guaranteed. His anger when making the claim highlights his desperation to confirm his control, something that foretells the increase in violence as the novel progresses.

“Maximus turned to Shadera. ‘You will be granted the status of elite. The first of your kind. And through you, the rings will see that even the worst animal can be tamed by the Heart. That even a Daggermouth can turn against their own.’”

Maximus’s plan shows the importance of appearances in New Found Haven. He doesn’t care about Shadera’s loyalties so long as she appears compliant, as this appearance advertises his power to quell dissent. He believes that the appearance of quelling dissent will lead to actual reduction in rebel action—as it will show the rebels that resistance is futile.

“‘I am better than you,’ he growled, his hands curling into fists. ‘You’re a Daggermouth. You kill for credits. I kill for order, to keep this fucked-up city from falling into chaos’ […]

‘The difference is I don’t pretend it makes me righteous […] I kill because I’m good at it. Because every contract I fulfill keeps medicine in the clinics, keeps families in the Boundary from starving even for just a few more days. You kill because Daddy tells you to.’”

Greyson and Shadera here debate Ethics and the Motivation to Commit Violence. While both point out the flaws in the other’s justification for violence—Shadera that she does it for profit, Greyson that he does it at Maximus’s behest—neither is yet honest about their true motivations. Greyson has little confidence in New Found Haven’s “order,” while Shadera does aim for a certain kind of righteousness in her quest to avenge her parents.

“‘Chapman isn’t a slave,’ he said in a matter-of-fact tone. ‘He’s paid well. Very well. He’s from the Cardinal, has family there. He’s been with men for ten years now, by choice.’

Shadera scoffed, the sound ugly in her throat. ‘Right. Because someone from the Cardinal has so many choices working for the Heart’s Executioner.’”

Greyson and Shadera present different views of what it means to be enslaved under a totalitarian regime. Greyson takes a literal view of the idea of enslavement as work without pay; since his aide is paid, he argues, there is no moral quandary in employing him. Shadera frames enslavement as a lack of choice. Because Chapman cannot choose to work elsewhere, he is functionally enslaved, no matter how much money he receives for his role.

“‘The city is almost beautiful from up here,’ she said, not really talking to him. ‘When you can’t see the suffering.’”

Shadera recognizes the question of image versus reality in New Found Haven. Maximus uses image to control his people, and by making the Heart seem beautiful—obscuring the continuous, brutal violence that sustains it—he generates confidence in the city among the select few who are pushed to commit violence rather than suffer it.

“‘Females have no place training beside men, Lira,’ her father had said. ‘Your place is behind us, ready to be called on when needed. Not beside, never beside.’”

New Found Haven’s totalitarian regime relies strongly on gender-based violence as well as class-based violence. Lira’s initial discussion of this misogyny highlights its most limiting element—that women are not allowed in the military. By preventing women from learning combat skills and carrying weapons, Maximus aims to prevent them from resisting the physical and sexual violence to which his regime subjects them.

“I wasn’t born in the Boundary, with the luxury of open rebellion. I wasn’t born in the Cardinal. I was born here, in this prison—make no mistake it is a prison, luxurious as it is—where every step is watched and measured.”

Greyson here discusses the pain of living under a surveillance state as part of his discussion of Forms of Control Under Totalitarian Regimes. He argues that being surveilled for loyalty—with death the consequence for any lapse—may be more constraining than life in the Boundary, even if the Boundary is more physically dangerous.

“Power. This was what real power looked like, Shadera realized. Not the brutal strength she’d known in the Boundary, but this frictionless movement through a world designed to serve you.”

Throughout the novel, different characters argue about the various ways in which power can make itself known. Here, Shadera contrasts her own ability to fight against a system designed to crush her with the privileges of the elite, who move easily through a system built to serve them, so long as they remain compliant. Later, Elara adds to this discussion by arguing that silence and patience are the true sources of power, as they allow her to operate without ever being suspected, let alone detected.

“Thirty-three years of obedience. Thirty-three years of swallowing his hatred, of playing the dutiful son, the perfect heir. Thirty-three years of watching his father destroy everything. And for what? For the privilege of living in a cage, of killing on command, of pretending the Heart’s poison hadn’t infected him to his core?”

In the Christian tradition, Jesus dies at age 33; this means that, in literary traditions, age 33 is often considered a signal that a character will undergo a great transformation or sacrifice themselves to save others. Greyson emphasizes his age here, alluding to that tradition. This also offers potential foreshadowing that Greyson’s life will be at risk in the series’s next installment.

“You deserved—deserve a better father. Love is not supposed to be cruel, and what he’s done to you…it’s not your fault. You’re a better man than him, Greyson. Now is the time to be that man.”

Shadera here affirms that Greyson did not deserve the cruelty his father heaped upon him, and she issues a call to arms. This statement looks both back and forward. She tries to soothe Greyson’s past hurts while framing the future as the more important element. If Greyson truly wants to be different from Maximus (who he later learns is not truly his father), he must decide to change.

“‘I wish you would stop making me punish you,’ he continued, maintaining that same conversational tone while applying subtle pressure to the injured joint.”

Maximus uses the cruel “logic” of abusers here, blaming Elara for the abuse he heaps upon her. While his “conversational tone” implies that he is making a joke out of blaming her for her own suffering, survivors of abuse may internalize this logic, something that combines psychological pain along with the physical abuse they suffer.

“‘We have to do something.’ Jameson leaned closer, urgency bleeding into his voice. ‘Together we’d have a chance. Real coordination, not just parallel resistance.’”

Jameson encourages Kestrel to work with the Boundary rebels here, addressing the novel’s attention to Information as a Form of Power. While he is correct that, together, the two groups can mount a more robust defense, this openness ultimately allows for Brooker’s spying to be more effective against them.

“In that suspended moment, watching as the lights from the city danced across her skin, Greyson recognized a truth. There were aspects of her that he was beginning to love. Not romantically, not sexually, but something more fundamental—her resilience, her fury, her refusal to bend. His whole life he’d bent for the Heart, his loyalty lying with no one and nothing, but her—she knew who she was and had no shame in that.”

Greyson’s initial emotional investment in Shadera is due to her fierceness and understanding of herself, not their attraction, which they both find inconvenient. This suggests that their love grows because, despite the differences on the surface, they hold similar values and admire one another’s character.

“The uniform transformed him, stripped away his identity, leaving only the blank canvas of Heart authority. He barely recognized himself beneath the rigid lines and sharp angles of Veyra design. Was this what was happening to Shadera in the Heart? This slow erosion of self, this rewriting of identity until nothing remained of who she’d been?”

Masks and uniforms act as a motif for the loss of individuality under totalitarianism. They erode the self, and Maximus uses this erosion of self as a tool against opposition. The idea that revolutions are fought not for lofty political ideals but for individuals is one that recurs in the novel—Greyson fights against Maximus, for whom his grudge is personal. Shadera fights for her parents. Callum fights for Lira. If this individuality is diminished, then the powerful desire to fight for other individuals will be diminished, too.

“‘I don’t want that,’ she said immediately, the words tearing from her throat. ‘I don’t want to be a symbol. I just want to go home.’

She wasn’t a fucking symbol. She was a mercenary, a killer for hire—not a hero, not a leader, not some face of a failing rebellion.”

Shadera rejects the idea that she is a potential symbol to the resistance on the grounds that she lacks the moral clarity to serve in such a role. However, the novel continually addresses the moral ambiguity required for surviving in New Found Haven, suggesting that Shadera’s violent history may be a strong reason why she is qualified to serve as a symbol in this capacity.

“‘Please,’ the man whispered. ‘I’m just following orders.’

‘Ah, the eternal excuse of the morally bankrupt,’ Callum replied.”

The evil of New Found Haven is upheld not by Maximus alone, but by the many who blindly support him, even as they are ordered to commit cruel and vicious acts. This interaction offers context as to how the political scheme in New Found Haven may continue after Maximus’s death in the novel’s cliffhanger ending.

“Trust was a luxury in New Found Haven, a commodity rarer and more precious than anything in the Heart.”

As the characters learn to increasingly be honest with one another, the novel notes that their secrecy is a logical response to the system in which they have been raised, not a mere plot device to increase suspense. Given the role of Information as a Form of Power, trust is both necessary and risky, as evidenced by Brooker’s betrayal.

“[Callum’s] face twisted with something like guilt, and she realized he was blaming himself for not seeing, not knowing. For not saving her from a horror that had occurred before they’d even become close. ‘Don’t,’ she said, her voice sharpening. ‘I don’t have the energy to console your male shame.’”

Despite his good intentions, Callum’s reaction to learning that Lira has been raped centers his experience, not hers. The novel presents this reaction as misguided, but more important is the way he responds to her pointing out what he has done wrong. When Callum accepts this criticism rather than pushing back against it, Lira is able to forgive him, and the two embrace their love.

“‘They’re vermin,’ Maximus countered […] ‘Parasites draining the Heart’s resources, contributing nothing of value. Better to clear them out, make room for those who deserve the protection of our city.’”

Maximus’s characterization of the residents of the outer rings as “vermin” and “parasites” rhetorically dehumanizes those residents in order to justify killing them. By comparing the outer ring resident to pests, he positions them as something that deserves killing due to the cause they harm. This kind of propaganda has proven powerful in real-world authoritarian and totalitarian regimes when seeking public support for genocide.

“They were mirror images, he realized. Both weapons crated by others’ hands, both scarred by the roles they’d been forced to play. Both longing for something they could barely name—freedom, perhaps. Redemption. A chance to be more than what violence had made them.”

Greyson uses the idea of mirror images to reconcile the differences and similarities between himself and Shadera. This reimagining of himself as her equal and opposite helps him see himself in a more positive light—the things he admires about Shadera, he is able to admire in himself.