54 pages • 1-hour read
Her Soul for Revenge
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Chapters 1-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of graphic violence, death, physical abuse, emotional abuse, substance use, and sexual content.
Chapter 1 Summary: “Juniper”
Juniper Kynes recalls her grandfather’s advice to flee if she “heard [her] name called from the woods” (8), even if the voice seemed to come from a loved one. Though her father was skeptical, dismissing this as superstition, Juniper reflected on her grandfather’s advice throughout her childhood. Superstitions regarding the woods abound in her hometown of Abelaum, Washington.
When she’s 15, Juniper prepares to take LSD with her friend Victoria Hadleigh. The girls focus on their plan, ignoring Victoria’s twin brother, Jeremiah, as he scandalizes other students with a recounting of a local history. In the story, late-19th-century miners were trapped in the vast mines below Abelaum for weeks. Only three survived, staying alive for weeks by cannibalizing their deceased peers. Jeremiah credits their survival to “something very old and powerful” that lives in the mine (11). The twins disparage their half-sibling, Everly Hadleigh, whose birth was a result of their father’s extramarital affair. Juniper uneasily goes along with the twins’ mockery of Everly.
After school, Juniper and Victoria drive to an abandoned stretch of road near the forest, where they take the drugs. Victoria says that Juniper is “lucky” that her mother will be too intoxicated to notice her daughter’s absence. Juniper succumbs to the psychotropic events of the drug and allows Victoria to lead her to the abandoned St. Thaddeus Cathedral. The surviving miners from Jeremiah’s story dedicated the cathedral to their god, called the “Deep One.” Juniper doesn’t want to enter the church, which feels “unexplainably wrong,” but gives in when Victoria insists.
Dozens of people are in the church, including many whom Juniper recognizes. Kent Hadleigh, the father of the twins and Everly, is present, as is Everly. Victoria and the other attendees all don masks. Juniper tries to flee, but the assembled townsfolk seize her and force her to kneel in front of Kent at the front of the church. Kent reveals that Juniper is a descendant of one of the three mine survivors, which means that he intends to sacrifice her to the Deep One. He believes that if someone from all three families is sacrificed, the Deep One will gain enough power to rule as a god. Kent produces a knife; Juniper insists that the stories aren’t real and begs for mercy, but he cuts her and, with the congregants, shoves her down a dark mine shaft.
Chapter 2 Summary: “Zane, Three Years Later”
Immortal demon Zane reflects on Earth’s cursed places, which attract demons even though Hell isn’t “some wretched, unpleasant place” (24). Gods and demons are in perpetual conflict, as demons’ reclamation of Hell weakened earthbound gods. In Abelaum, however, digging the mines put humans in contact with one such dormant god, which led to the local zealous, violent religion called the Libiri. Though Zane reflects that demons should avoid Abelaum, he returns there to protect Leon, his friend, fellow demon, and former lover, who is bound via magic to Kent Hadleigh. Zane helps Leon clean wounds that Kent cruelly inflicted on him.
Leon was injured as punishment for refusing to kill Juniper, who escaped from the mine after the Hadleighs tried to kill her. She was recently released from prison after three years’ incarceration in a psychiatric hospital for attempting to kill Victoria. Leon reflects that “the God has her scent” and will “keep hunting her” (26). Juniper’s fortitude fascinates Zane.
Zane visits a diner, where he’s surprised to see three other demons eating. He hears a cry from the woods, indicating that magical creatures are gathering. Juniper bursts into the diner, covered in mud and blood that Zane recognizes as coming from mythical Eldbeasts (or Eld). When the waiter at the diner threatens to call the police, Juniper holds him at gunpoint, demanding food. She grabs what she can and quickly leaves. Zane and the other three demons follow her; they want to bargain with Juniper and take her soul in exchange for their protection. Zane plans to make such a bargain himself.
Zane follows Juniper and advises her on the best way to kill Eldbeasts. Juniper is suspicious, even when he claims that he isn’t one of the Libiri. He adds that he currently wants nothing but that “someday [he] may want everything” (34). She shoots him, but the bullet wound heals over in a moment. He advises her not to go outside at night. When she flees, he reflects that she’ll offer him “a fascinating hunt” (34).
Chapter 3 Summary: “Juniper”
Juniper reflects on how the trauma of the past several years has changed her. She relies on her gun to feel safe and uses alcohol and sex to distract herself from her fear.
Three years after the events in Chapter 2, Juniper finds a run-down bar in rural Louisiana where she cheats at pool to earn money; she reasons that since this money is a matter of survival, she doesn’t feel guilty about the duplicity. When a man attacks her and threatens sexual violence, Juniper doesn’t hesitate to kill him. She fights her way out of the bar, killing several others. When someone grabs her, Zane (though she doesn’t immediately recognize him) kills her assailant.
Juniper flees, driving until something strikes the side of her car. She grabs her shotgun and shoots at an Eld that resembles a crocodile. She fights the beast until she successfully kills it with a shot to the head.
Chapter 4 Summary: “Juniper”
Juniper is startled when Zane comments on her skill in killing the Eld. He offers her marijuana, which she accepts, reasoning that she’s armed and he isn’t. He introduces himself, though he doesn’t press her for personal information. They banter and then kiss; she likes his roughness and degrading language, which coincide with her preferences. They have manual and penetrative sex, and Juniper thrills at the taboo of having sex outside. Zane reveals his demonic features, including golden eyes and sharp teeth, but this doesn’t diminish Juniper’s sexual pleasure. As soon as their encounter ends, however, she seizes her gun, recalling meeting him in Abelaum.
Zane admits to being a demon but reiterates that he doesn’t work for Kent. He says that he has followed Juniper for years. He admires that she has evaded death, even after many near misses. He claims that all he wants is Juniper and encourages her to find him when she gets “sick of running” (56). Juniper returns to her car, furious at herself for her risky behavior. She finds a business card against her dashboard, which makes her wonder whether revenge is worth returning to Abelaum.
Chapter 5 Summary: “Juniper”
In a dream that draws from memory, Juniper recalls being in the hospital after the Libiri’s attempted sacrifice. Her brother, Marcus, visits her without their mother’s permission, as their mother fears the cost of Juniper’s hospital stay. Marcus, like the police and doctors, doubts Juniper’s story of what happened; he shows her a video of Victoria talking to the local news, tearfully lying about Juniper’s supposed random attack against her. The dream turns into a nightmare as tentacles consume Marcus, who intones, “It’s too late” (62).
Juniper wakes in the present. She doesn’t have enough money for food, and hunger gnaws at her. She has a text from her mother, who hasn’t spoken to her in years, telling her that Marcus is dead. Her grief turns into fury as she reads news articles reporting that there are no suspects in Marcus’s brutal stabbing; she knows this means that the Hadleighs and their corrupt police allies were responsible. Juniper is horrified that she never thought that outrunning the Libiri would lead them to hurt her brother. She starts driving toward Abelaum, determined to get revenge.
Chapter 6 Summary: “Juniper”
Juniper notes the contrast between Abelaum’s idyllic surface and the aura of “unease” that rests over the place. She watches Marcus’s funeral from a distance, lamenting that she never warned her brother about the Hadleighs yet certain that he wouldn’t have believed any warnings. She seethes when she sees Kent comforting her mother and considers shooting him, but she decides to wait to plan her attack more effectively.
Juniper stays near the gravesite late into the night, lamenting that she didn’t know her brother even before his death. She sees Leon emerge from the shadows and quietly watches him, horrified but forcing herself to stay hidden as Leon digs up Marcus’s grave and steals his body, which puzzles and infuriates her. She plans to kill all the Hadleighs, “no matter what deals ha[ve] to be made” (72).
Chapter 7 Summary: “Zane”
Zane reflects that hunting human souls becomes easier over the years, as claiming these souls leads to power and material rewards in Hell. He prefers, however, “the thrill of a challenge” (74). He specifically likes to collect the souls of unrepentant killers; consequently, he’s determined to possess Juniper’s soul. He’s thrilled when Juniper, whom he has followed for years, reaches out to him, asking to make a bargain.
They meet in a bar. Juniper is intoxicated when she arrives, and she greets some of the bar patrons warmly. Zane warns her that he “enjoy[s] making humans suffer for what they want” (79), so any deal she makes will be painful. Juniper considers it worth any pain to kill everyone affiliated with the Libiri, which she wants to do by herself, just with assistance; she doesn’t want to have Zane do the killing for her.
Zane hesitates, as this deal would be very time-consuming and could attract unwanted attention from Hell’s Council. He offers her a fresh start instead, but Juniper sees this as impossible after her brother’s death. She offers anything in exchange for revenge, including her soul and any amount of physical pain. Zane counters that he wants both her soul and sexual submission, though he promises to grant mercy if she asks for it during physical encounters. He tells her to think over the deal; if she agrees, she’ll meet him in the woods the following night.
Chapter 8 Summary: “Juniper”
Juniper lingers at the bar after Zane leaves, annoyed that he’s pushing her to think about her decision when she had hoped to “brute-force [her] way into bravery” by being drunk (84). She resolves to take the bargain, however. Joanie, the bar owner, encourages Juniper to drink less, offers condolences for Marcus’s death, and offers Juniper a place to stay. Juniper refuses Joanie’s offer.
Juniper reflects on her few memories of her father, who left her family when she was a child and died shortly thereafter. Before that, however, he taught her how to hunt and fish and left her a small cabin outside Abelaum. As Juniper heads to the cabin, she reflects on her father’s advice about not hesitating when facing a predator. She recalls how it took search parties two days to find her in the mine and how she attempted to kill Victoria as soon as she was released from the hospital. Her memories following that are blurred by lack of sleep, overmedication, and constant invalidation from authority figures who didn’t believe her story. She spent three years in a psychiatric hospital, which gave her some protection against the Eldbeasts. She spent the next several years unsuccessfully fleeing from the omnipresent Eld. She plans to use the skills she gained and the pain she experienced against the Libiri.
Chapters 1-8 Analysis
The first chapters of Her Soul for Revenge set up the stakes, both personal and magical, of Juniper’s arc in the novel, though the latter of these will appear different to readers familiar with the first novel in the trilogy, Her Soul to Take. Because the two novels’ timelines overlap significantly, readers who have read the first novel know that Juniper and Zane kill the Hadleighs, who are major antagonists. The idea that readers might already know the outcome of major plot points isn’t antithetical to the novel’s genre, as the leading convention of romance is that romances must have happy endings. Since Juniper’s central desire is to vanquish her enemies, it stands to reason that killing the Hadleighs is necessary to her happiness. The stakes of the novel, therefore, become less about whether Juniper will achieve her revenge than about how she’ll do so and what psychological effects she’ll experience by getting this vengeance. Her determination to get vengeance introduces the theme of Revenge as a Positive Force, but the emphasis on the process rather than the outcome places some initial doubt on whether the novel’s view of revenge is entirely positive.
While Laroux’s choice to reveal this novel’s ending through the previous installment in the trilogy aligns with romance conventions, Her Soul for Revenge also plays into the tropes of horror. In Chapter 6, Juniper discusses how Abelaum’s surface is idyllic, but even those who don’t believe in the supernatural forces at play in the town can sense the malevolent forces lurking beneath the cheerful surface. This contrast heightens the town’s horror by indicating that evil can exist even in seemingly peaceful and safe places. The woods, where the dangerous allies of the Deep One lurk, are a boundary line around Abelaum, delineating between where evil can hide and where it reveals itself.
The novel persistently asserts a difference between appearance and reality, especially regarding dominant cultural narratives about good versus evil. In Chapter 2, Zane offers a nostalgic vision of Hell, which he frames as a place that has fewer inhibitions than what’s common to human culture but isn’t inherently evil or inhabited solely by evildoers. Instead, he frames Hell as a place that has history, culture, and diversity. By contrast, the humans who have the most social capital in the novel (the Hadleighs as community leaders, the police officers who work for the Libiri, and the doctors who drug and disbelieve Juniper) are the ones most likely to commit evil to preserve their status. The novel encourages questioning mainstream cultural narratives that broadly equate social respectability with goodness or declare that all religions are good and that all demons are inherently bad.
The mark of good and evil in the novel, therefore, stems not from identifying a specific religious tradition, but rather from The Importance of Consent, which emerges as another central theme. The text frames demons as having an unusually strong identification with this value: As Zane notes in Chapter 7, the right of someone to ask a demon for mercy is considered sacred among demons. Zane is consistent in this position: He repeatedly determines that Juniper can offer clearheaded consent to any bargains or encounters between them. The novel contrasts this sharply with Kent, who, along with his family, has enslaved Leon for a century, and the Deep One, which seeks to take advantage of its followers.
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