“[Lily] wasn’t built to break, no matter how much she wanted to, and she silently and half-heartedly cursed that […] part of her that wouldn’t—couldn’t—let her be that vulnerable, even alone.”

This quote reveals Lily’s complicated perspective on strength. Though she evidently values her resilience as a survival mechanism, it hinders her ability to feel the depth of her own emotions. Her desire to “break” speaks to an implied, long-standing need to abstain from her own strength, yet such is the ingrained nature of endurance that she doesn’t permit herself the release.

“The silence under her [Lily’s] palm was just another reminder of the fight she’d lost, of her failure.”

Here, “silence” emphasizes Lily’s lack of mortal life, and, specifically, the life she’d worked so hard to survive and endure while still alive. Her qualification of this silence as being tied to “failure” is indicative of her internal struggles with guilt and responsibility, which will drive her experience of The Importance of Self-Determination throughout her arc.

“You’ll [Lily] find that impressions and feelings of past lives are going to be far more prevalent than details or fully formed memories […]. Your most recent life will remain clear to you until you decide to reincarnate.”

This dialogue establishes one of the main rules of Lynn’s worldbuilding. Though a soul may persist until it meets the Void, the iterations of its reincarnation do not offer a consistent continuum—they are not chapters of the same book. Rather, reincarnations are akin to books written by the same author. They stand alone and may or may not be loosely interwoven.

“Too many people take the power of choice away from others. I [Lily] like justice. Especially when it can’t be argued.”

In this excerpt, Lynn implies how Lily’s traumatic childhood has shaped her views on justice and morality, reflecting The Experience of Religious Trauma and Healing. Her preference for an inarguable justice speaks to her deep frustration with the corruption and wrongdoings she’s experienced and witnessed throughout her life.

“There had been an insidious little voice in her mind that whispered that maybe he [a hookup from college] had been right. Maybe she was too much. Too sharp, too sarcastic, too independent, took things too seriously, had feelings that were too big.”

Though Lily is outwardly a “tough” character who demonstrates a notable fighting spirit, this passage reveals some of the internalized doubts and unresolved self-esteem issues that have plagued her for years. It gestures towards a history of difficult experiences that leave her hesitant to get too close to others.

“They’re [Demons] different, but they’re a lovely people. They usually avoid the Entrance Hall to keep from, uh, causing a scene.”

When Siedah makes this comment to Lily, it signals a change in Lily, wherein she begins to doubt all the preconceived information she was given about the Afterlife by her evangelical church. Lily’s chance at experiencing the Afterlife on her own terms helps her address The Experience of Religious Trauma and Healing.

“[Heaven] didn’t feel sinister—the opposite in fact—but she wished that it did. Unable to tear her eyes away from the arch, she felt like a stain on the landscape of the Afterlife.”

In this passage, the author underscores Lily’s acute sense of alienation from the cultural belief system she participated in as a child. Such was the fear-mongering and controlling effects of her church upbringing that, despite earning her Paradise, she still feels displaced and unworthy of the sight of Heaven’s arch.

“A flash of shame from her preteen years, curious and confused and desperate to know, to understand. Questioning God will get you sent to Hell, Lily, is that what you want?”

Here, Lynn foreshadows some of the psychologically abusive language Lily encountered as a child. Likewise, this passage offers an echo to Sharkie’s experience, as both were threatened with Hell as a means to control and restrain their natural curiosity, reflecting The Experience of Religious Trauma and Healing.

“Being yourself—really, authentically yourself—that’s a heroic feat, yeah?”

Since part of Lily’s character journey entails deconstructing her assumptions on vulnerability, this passage heralds the beginning of Lily’s transformation. It suggests that Lily’s understanding of strength is faulty, as embracing one’s true identity—which includes past trauma, fears, and inadequacies—is a form of resistance and personal triumph.

“[Mortal souls] remember not being a guest of Hell, but an inmate of it, and that is not a pleasant thing to be. Mortals, wonderful creatures that they are, or can be, naturally spun these deep memories and impressions into stories.”

While Lily is on a journey to relearn much of what she’s been taught about the Afterlife, Hell still enacts justice in brutal fashion. While this justice is harsh, Lily supports it and often helps to administer it, as it helps to uphold accountability for mortals’ past actions. The suggestion that mortals are “wonderful creatures” speaks to how Lucifer and the demons tend to view humans sympathetically.

“You [Lucifer] and the demons don’t deserve to be thought of as equal opportunity monsters because you’ve had to do terrible things in the name of justice. I’m [Lily] sorry that there’s not a way to set the record straight.”

Here, the author outlines a moment of emotional growth within Lily. Rather than viewing Lucifer and the demons as inherently evil, she acknowledges that their harsh actions stem from responsibility and duty, not cruelty for its own sake.

“Beauty feeds the souls, my sweet boy [Bel]. It takes many forms, some of them obvious, like a flower in bloom or the laughter of a child, but sometimes it is hidden, though never absent. Find beauty.”

In this excerpt, Lilith’s allusion to the flower in bloom or the “laughter of a child” foreshadows the eventual relationships in Bel’s life, invoking The Supportive Dynamics of a Chosen Family. Specifically, the flower in bloom is reminiscent of the lily tattoo he will obtain at the end of the narrative, while the laughter of a child speaks to his adoption of Sharkie as well as to the eventual biological children he intends to have with Lily.

“[Bel had] meant it when he’d told her that [Lily] didn’t feel temporary. Not only did she move through Hell and the Afterlife like she’d been born to it, but it felt like they’d been friends for years. He wanted to just be around her.”

In this passage, there is foreshadowing of Lily’s eventual deification with the permanence of making the Afterlife her home. Though she may fit in Bel’s future, Lynn implies that Lily has etched herself into an integral part of the Afterlife and fits its environment just as much.

“[Lily] was happy, and for a moment it was so damn foreign that she almost shut it down on instinct.”

This passage captures Lily’s struggle to accept genuine happiness, revealing how her self-protective instincts are shaped by past pain. While she is undergoing emotional growth, it requires changing behavior patterns and embracing positive outcomes (rather than being suspicious of them) to fully evolve. This is a key part of Lily’s developing understanding of The Importance of Self-Determination.

“It’s not mine. I did nothing to earn it, it shouldn’t even be mine, but…it doesn’t even mean anything to me. Not like being a general. I earned that. That matters.”

Here, Bel’s repetitive dismissal of his title’s (prince of Hell) worth and the attachment he has to it underscores his long-standing denial and desire to feel worthy of being his father’s successor. While he presumably wouldn’t have the same issues accepting the title if his father was still in the Afterlife, his insistence that it is not “his” reveals his feelings of inadequacy and unresolved trauma over his father’s death.

“The abuse Sharkie had suffered was in an entirely different class than what [Lily] had gone through, but too much of it held a note of familiarity.”

Lily reveals here why she is by far the best choice to be Sharkie’s guardian. Their common background and similar past traumas grant Lily a specific insight into Sharkie’s behavior that would could confound other candidates. Lily’s willingness to fill a maternal role to Sharkie also invokes The Supportive Dynamics of a Chosen Family.

“But you’re [Bel] a prince to me [Lily]. Not in the shitty paperwork, ‘you got assigned to be a prince of Hell’ way, but in the ‘you have a good heart’ way.”

Here, Lily’s gentle compliment of Bel’s princely behavior addresses one of the core misunderstandings Bel carries towards his title. While he believes himself inadequate because Samael chose the Void over staying with him, his actions as general, as advisor to Lucifer, as an individual give him the air of nobility that would have otherwise qualified him for the title, regardless of his father’s disposition.

“The picture [of Lily and her brothers] haunted her. In a friendly, familiar, wonderful kind of way, but a haunting was a haunting.”

This excerpt attests to the uneasy relationship Lily holds with her past life. Though Lily undoubtedly loves her brothers even beyond death, their memory and their absence have a weight that, akin to Bel and his father, overtake the sweetness of the memory in the photograph and the love she bears them.

“Why didn’t my mom love me enough to stay?”

In this passage, Sharkie reveals her deep-seated feelings of disappointment and longing for parental love. Her blunt and raw question evokes how innocent she still is and how her pain, despite the joy she finds living with Lily, remains unresolved and unattended.

“How […] was her happiest lifetime the one where she [Lily’s] died young of cancer? How was the runner up for that title the one where she was wrongly burned as a witch and had a husband who tolerated but didn’t love her? And she still wanted to go back? Did she?”

In this passage, Lily’s repetitive questioning creates a culminating effect, giving greater dramatic value to her last question (“Did she?”) and highlighting how torn Lily feels between the possibilities of her reincarnation and the happiness she is beginning to find in the Afterlife. The quote points to the paradoxical nature of this happiness and attachment, leaving Lily to face The Importance of Self-Determination in choosing her future.

“Going to the Void isn’t like suicide is for the mortals. I suppose it’s similar to dying of old age in your bed. Voluntarily.”

Though Bel’s wording frames the act of entering the Void as a conscious, controlled choice rather than a tragic or desperate act for the departee, the reality of his experience with his father’s choice to enter it indicates otherwise for those left behind. While Bel is able to grasp the theory of why someone would enter the Void, the practical needs that drove his father there remain incomprehensible to him still.

“Vulnerability isn’t a race, it’s a conversation.”

Given Lily’s struggles with vulnerability, this comment from Bel reduces the pressure Lily has felt in her inability to properly allow people to know her fully. By describing it as a “conversation,” it emphasizes that opening up requires trust and mutual engagement, rather than a sole act of courage from one person. It proposes a supported exploration of her vulnerabilities, in other words, rather than an exposure.

“Lily didn’t want to be trouble, but as she grew up, she seemed to be anyway.”

This passage echoes the similarities between Lily and Sharkie to underscore how the same kind of punishing fear was instilled to quell dissenting behavior, reflecting The Experience of Religious Trauma and Healing. It showcases how these religious representatives preyed upon children who were predominantly good-natured and took advantage of this trait to manipulate them into conforming to their standards.