Scythe & Sparrow

These chapters intensify the novel’s thematic explorations of The Quest for Home and Belonging and The Redemptive Power of Love, particularly when Rose is forced to make a difficult decision about her future upon the pair’s return to Hartford from Boston. The removal of her cast symbolically frees her from her current situation, allowing her to get back on the move if she chooses to do so. This moment therefore becomes a pivotal plot point that ushers her over a new emotional threshold. On one side of the threshold lies Rose’s fantastical life with Fionn, while on the other side lies her reality on the road. The cast is symbolic of stasis because it has kept Rose out of the circus, off the road, and in Fionn’s home. Once the cast is off, Rose has “to pull up stakes and leave for someplace new” (205). However, although the cast removal offers Rose the illusion of freedom, it complicates her existing definition of home. She has felt an unaccustomed sense of comfort, safety, and belonging with Fionn, and she is now reluctant to give this up after her recovery. At the same time, Rose has not articulated her feelings to Fionn and does not know if a future with him is viable. These relational complexities challenge Rose to identify her emotions and decide how best to realize her dreams.

Significantly, the temporal shifts in Chapters 18 and 20 formally imply that Rose and Fionn’s connection is sustainable despite their unarticulated feelings for each other. After one month apart, they still keep in touch and maintain their emotional bond, and this initial separation foreshadows their successful navigation of a year-long separation—a period of time that implies Rose and Fionn’s long-term compatibility despite the circumstantial and emotional barriers between them. In Chapter 20, Fionn’s internal monologue during his Blood Brothers fight authenticates these notions and conveys that his feelings for Rose have developed over time. As he reflects:

I should be focused on my opponent. But I’m not. I’m thinking about Rose. I try to put space between us. But it never lasts. There’s always a reason to pull us back together. Like Rowan and Sloane’s wedding—I tried to tell myself to ease back and give us both some room to breathe. And what happened? We ended up fucking in the bathroom of Leytonstone Inn. (242)

The brutally honest and borderline humorous tone of this passage indicates that the two have a magnetic connection that transcends the bounds of time and space. As they are repeatedly drawn back into sexual intimacy and continue to rely on each other for emotional support, their multifaceted connection inspires them to trust one another with their deepest secrets and greatest sorrows. Over time, the intersection of their sexual and emotional bonds begins to offer both protagonists—and particularly Fionn—a glimpse of The Redemptive Power of Love. Likewise, just as Fionn offers Rose a form of home and belonging, Rose offers Fionn a sense of comfort and assuredness. In the year that they have known each other, Fionn realizes that his “own fears are eroding, replaced by need [he] couldn’t shake even if [he] wanted to” (242). His attraction to Rose has grown into love—and this dynamic is fully revealed in the sex scene that takes place in the haunted house. Amidst the terrors, threats, and uncertainties that both Fionn and Rose must face, they revel in the fact that they have each other. 

The scenes in the haunted house also reflect the author’s ongoing commitment to playing with the patterns and boundaries of traditional genres. For example, Matt’s grotesque costume and face paint place him in the role of an over-the-top villain straight out of a schlocky horror movie, and the haunted house symbolizes the dangers and fears that beset Rose’s life. However, the author subverts the horror theme with twisted images of love and connection when Fionn and Rose kill Matt and celebrate their triumph by having sex in the midst of the haunted house’s macabre trappings. Taken in this context, their passionate, celebratory encounter becomes a metaphor for the act of exorcising inner demons and combatting life’s trials with love.

At the same time, Fionn’s decision to kill Matt and to ask Leander for help creates new conflicts in his seemingly idyllic romantic connection to Rose. Having sex with Rose in the haunted house gives Fionn a few “moments of clarity” (277), but as soon as the encounter ends, he is forced “to embrace the dread of the unknown” (277)—one that he believes he must face without Rose by his side. His meeting with Leander compels Fionn into even more uncertainty. When he accepts Leander’s job assignment, he is forced to compromise his sense of self, lie to his loved ones, and part with Rose. These decisions create obstacles in his future with Rose and further upset his sense of home and belonging. Thus, Leander’s appearance introduces a plot twist that changes the stakes of Fionn’s storyline, and the author uses this moment to show that life’s unexpected events can test a person’s strength of character, sense of security, and capacity for love.