Raven Kennedy’s Gleam, first self-published in 2021, is the third installment in the international bestselling Plated Prisoner series, a popular dark fantasy romance saga that gained widespread attention on the social media platform TikTok. The novel continues the story of Auren, a woman with a lethal golden touch who has spent a decade as the gilded captive of the manipulative King Midas. After learning the truth about her newfound ally and Midas’s greatest rival, King Slade Ravinger, Auren must navigate a treacherous political landscape while secretly plotting her escape and exploring her own burgeoning power. The novel examines themes of Deception as a Tool of Power and Control, The Illusory Safety of Imprisonment and Isolation, and The Reclamation of Intimacy and Consent.

Presented as a dark reimagining of the King Midas myth, Gleam subverts the classical tale by exploring the psychological effects of long-term abuse and commodification. Kennedy has written in multiple genres, but The Plated Prisoner series, which includes the books Gild, Glint, Glow, Gold, and Goldfinch, became a New York Times and USA Today bestseller, selling over 5 million copies worldwide. A television adaptation of the series is also in development.

This guide refers to the 2024 Bloom Books edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of graphic violence, sexual violence, rape, sexual content, cursing, death, physical abuse, emotional abuse, and substance use.

Plot Summary

Ten years in the past, 15-year-old Auren, an orphan with golden skin in the port city of Derfort Harbor, hides from her owner, Zakir. He finds her and forces her to go to an inn called The Solitude. Zakir informs her that since she is now considered an adult, her duties will shift from begging and pickpocketing to sex work. He threatens to sell her to Barden East, a more ruthless flesh trader, if she disobeys. Feeling trapped, Auren complies.

In the present, Auren is in Ranhold Castle in Fifth Kingdom, where King Midas of Sixth Kingdom is acting as regent after the death of King Fulke, which Midas arranged. She confronts Rip, the commander of Fourth Kingdom’s army, having just discovered he is also the feared King Ravinger, whose real name is Slade. She accuses him of deceit for hiding his identity while forcing her to reveal her fae heritage and her 24 sentient, golden ribbons that grow from her back. Slade has two forms: As Rip, he has spikes, scales, and black eyes, while as King Ravinger, he has smooth skin, green eyes, and dark, root-like veins. Their argument is interrupted by the arrival of King Midas.

Midas confronts Ravinger, who taunts him for keeping Auren in a cage. The guards witnessed Auren gild her cage door; her gold-touch power, which only works during daylight, is lethal to any living being she touches. Midas also makes everyone believe it is his power, not hers. Midas orders the guards executed for witnessing this secret. Auren threatens to stop using her power if Midas ever cages her again. Realizing he needs her compliance, Midas feigns remorse. Auren decides to play along to plan her escape.

In a shift of perspective, King Midas reflects on his need for Auren to create more gold to solidify his hold on Ranhold. He recalls his abusive father after seeing a sculptor who resembles him. His advisor, Odo, reports that Queen Malina is rebelling in his Sixth Kingdom castle, Highbell, and that one of Midas’s royal concubines, or “saddles,” Mist, is pregnant with his child. Believing Malina to be infertile, Midas plans for her to fake a pregnancy and claim the saddle’s child as their legitimate heir.

Auren explores Ranhold Castle with two guards, Scofield and Lowe, secretly gathering information for her escape. On the castle parapet, she is confronted by an arrogant captain and, in a fit of rage, is stopped from killing him only by Slade’s timely arrival. She is shaken by this new dark impulse. Later, Midas confronts Auren for leaving her room and reveals he is holding her former guard and father figure, Digby, as leverage, stating Digby’s safety depends on her obedience.

Midas locks Auren in her room, but she escapes via the balcony. She encounters Lu, one of Slade’s elite group of warriors known as his Wrath, who is disappointed that Auren returned to Midas. Auren explores the castle grounds, where she sees Slade with a body double wearing Rip’s armor. She sneaks into the royal library and finds a forbidden illustrated book about the fae land of Annwyn, where she’s from. Auren then visits the saddles, where she learns they’re using a drug called “dew,” supplied by Midas. She makes a deal with another saddle, Rissa: Auren and Digby will escape with Rissa and her friend Polly during an upcoming ball, and in exchange, Rissa will keep Auren’s secret that she has fae magic.

Over the next four days, Midas forces Auren to gild large parts of the castle, leaving her exhausted. She nearly collapses on a staircase and is found by Slade, who carries her to her room. After a charged confrontation, they share a passionate kiss on her balcony. The next evening, at a welcome dinner for Queen Kaila of Third Kingdom, Midas publicly humiliates Auren. In response to her unruly behavior at this dinner, he smacks her in private, leaving a bruise.

Despite Midas’s warnings, Auren sneaks out of her room again and visits the library once more to find blueprints of the castle for her escape. She instead finds Slade, who is infuriated to see her bruised cheek. That night, she seeks Slade’s room, wanting to make her own choices. There, she meets the body double who has pretended to be Rip, revealed to be Slade’s brother, Ryatt. Ryatt gives them privacy, and they spend an intimate night together.

In Highbell, Midas’s spies spread doubt about Malina’s rule and cause the citizens to turn on her. In a revolt, her remaining guards and personal saddle, Jeo, help her escape to a safehouse. However, Midas’s assassin attacks them. Only Malina and her guide, a mysterious man with a map of the supposedly destroyed Seventh Kingdom, escape.

A few nights later, Lu sneaks Auren to the Fourth Kingdom army camp, where she spends another romantic night with Slade. During the visit, Slade intercepts a coded message confirming Queen Malina’s supposed death in an uprising at the Sixth Kingdom castle. Lu also confirms that she’s been trying to secretly protect Prince Niven, the son of King Fulke and the only person keeping Midas from fully ruling Fifth Kingdom. Midas wouldn’t kill him openly, but he’s unsafe.

On Auren’s way back to the castle, Queen Kaila confronts her. Kaila reveals she knows Auren snuck out, having used her magic to overhear her. She says she and Midas are now betrothed. Kaila threatens to expose Auren’s affair unless she leaves Ranhold, also revealing her intent to kill Mist. Auren rushes to warn Mist, who is hostile and disbelieving.

On the day of the ball, Midas promises to let Auren see Digby, her old guard and paternal figure, if she performs a final day of gilding. After she exhausts her power, he leads her to a cell where she finds Digby has been brutally tortured. Midas then reveals he drugged her wine with dew. As she becomes disoriented, he attempts to assault her. Auren fights back with her ribbons. Enraged, Midas has his guards hold her down and cuts off her ribbons with a sword, leaving her in excruciating pain.

She is later drugged with dew, giving her vivid dreams and hallucinations. She recalls fleeing Derfort, where she was a child sex worker, for fear that a crime lord called Barden East would take her. In a haze, Auren is taken to the mezzanine overlooking the ball. As her memory returns, Midas reveals he was Barden East. He chased her from Derfort and orchestrated their entire relationship to use her power.

Before the ball, barely conscious, Auren urges Rissa and Polly to escape. During the royal toast, Prince Niven is poisoned, and Midas frames Slade for the murder. As Midas orders Slade’s arrest, Auren intervenes and publicly accuses Midas. Midas takes Auren hostage, threatening her with a blade. Enraged, Auren unleashes a new level of power, bringing every gilded object in the castle to life. She turns the ballroom into a sea of molten gold, killing Midas’s guards before encasing Midas himself in solid gold. Her power rages out of her control, threatening to destroy the castle and drain her life force.

The climax is retold from Slade’s perspective. He watches in awe as Auren kills Midas but grows terrified as her power consumes her. Unable to get Auren to release the magic, Slade uses a controlled application of his rotting power on her, forcing her into a life-saving stasis to sever her connection to the gold. With his Wrath, Digby, and his brother Ryatt, he carries her unconscious body from the ruined castle and orders his army to retreat to Fourth Kingdom, knowing Queen Kaila will blame Auren for the massacre. He vows to save her.