58 pages • 1-hour read
Great and Precious Things
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Background
Authorial Context: Rebecca Yarros
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death.
A New York Times and USA Today best-selling author, Rebecca Yarros (born in 1981) has written more than 20 novels. Most of her works are contemporary romance novels, including The Things We Leave Unfinished (2021), In the Likely Event (2023), and Variation (2024). She gained popularity in 2024 with her best-selling fantasy romance Empyrean series, Fourth Wing (2023), Iron Flame (2023), and Onyx Storm (2025). Yarros currently lives in Washington, DC, with her husband and six children.
As a military spouse, many of Yarros’s novels explore the impact of military deployment on families and the transition of military veterans back into civilian life. For example, her 2019 novel, The Last Letter, explores the love between Ella and military veteran Beckett, who met via letter correspondence while he served. When Ella’s brother is killed, Beckett fulfills his last request to take care of Ella, and the two eventually fall in love. Through their relationship, the novel explores themes of resilience, love, and healing, focusing on how Beckett’s military service and Ella’s experiences as a military wife impact their lives.
Although it’s a work of fantasy, Yarros’s Empyrean series centers on war and rebellion in the fictional kingdom of Navarre. Through the main characters, Violet, Xaden, and Dain, Yarros examines themes of familial military legacy, loyalty, and duty in a wartime setting. Love is central to the storyline as Yarros explores how war and hardship impact friendship, family, and romance.
In Great and Precious Things, Cam’s military service affects him deeply. He struggles to adapt to civilian life after years of letting his physical strength and violence take the forefront in his life. The last time he visited Alba, he left after starting a brawl with Oscar over his comments toward Willow, which led to Cam throwing Xander through a gas station window. Now, he faces similar situations with Oscar, Judge Bradley, and other townspeople that test his patience and ability to resist the urge to use violence to solve his problems. Additionally, he’s haunted by his choice that led to his brother Sullivan’s death in the military and struggles to come to terms with that decision and overcome his guilt. Similar to Yarros’s other novels, love plays a central role in Cam’s ability to adapt to civilian life. Willow stands by Cam, supporting and loving him because despite the mistakes he made, she believes in his capacity to change.
Literary Context: East of Eden by John Steinbeck
East of Eden is a 1952 fiction novel by celebrated American author John Steinbeck (1902-1968). A multigenerational family saga and a bildungsroman, the novel spans several decades in the lives of two families, the Trasks and the Hamiltons, in Salinas Valley, California. Critics have praised Steinbeck, who authored more than 30 books during his prestigious career, for his exploration of everyman protagonists and for examining life during the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, and World War II. His works often explore themes of fate, free will, and individualism.
Yarros’s novel pays homage to Steinbeck’s work in various ways. Both novels explore interpersonal familial dynamics, particularly the relationship between brothers and the impact of their father’s expectations, love, and disappointment. The characters of Cal in East of Eden and Cam in Great and Precious Things not only share similar names but also grapple with their anger, temper, and past decisions as they try to find their places in the world. Central to both characters are their relationships with their siblings and their father, whose love they must learn to live without while examining their identities. When Cal’s brother, Aron, goes off to war and is killed, Cal begins a relationship with Aron’s former girlfriend—just as Cam pursues his feelings for Willow, who was his brother Sullivan’s girlfriend. Additionally, both texts revolve around the concept of place, as the settings of Salinas Valley, California, and Alba, Colorado, play significant roles in creating both a sense of entrapment and a sense of belonging.
Familiarity with Steinbeck’s East of Eden lends insight into Yarros’s characters, their motivations, and their development throughout the text. Both novels center the interplay between choice and free will. While Steinbeck emphasizes the idea of timshel and personal choice, Yarros explores the impact of those choices, the guilt that stems from them, and the value of having the freedom to choose—for better or worse.
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