58 pages • 1-hour read
These Hollow Vows
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Themes
Misleading Power of Assumptions and Secrets
Throughout most of These Hollow Vows, Brie operates on incorrect or incomplete information. Part of this comes from her own incorrect assumptions about the fae, which is partially because others intentionally hide information from her and partially because different characters are magically bound from revealing certain information. Though all these sources of misinformation or mystery affect the way Brie moves through Faerie on her quest to save her sister, they prove to have different levels of effect—and different methods to overcome the obstacles they set in her path.
Brie’s assumptions prove to be the most widespread source of misinformation for her in the text, and yet they ultimately become the easiest for Brie to overcome. Though Brie does not make the decision to stay in Faerie until the end of the novel, she quickly realizes that her assumptions about faeries as a whole comes from ignorance and bigotry. As she meets Finn and her allies—especially Lark, Pretha’s young daughter—she learns that assuming that all faeries are good or evil is as misguided as assuming that all humans are good or evil. She increasingly learns to understand that the societies of Faerie and Elora have more in common than they have differences, and she comes to see good and evil as a personal matter or, more frequently, one that follows the corrupting forces of power.
Secrets—whether those intentionally or magically kept—prove a more challenging obstacle. Unwillingness to speak on a topic is sometimes framed as more difficult an issue for Brie than an inability to do so; the difference depends largely on which character is keeping these secrets and what their intentions are in doing so. When Finn, Pretha, and the rebels keep secrets, for example, Brie understands why they might do so. Their secrets are honestly kept, as they do not pretend that they are telling her everything. Sebastian’s secrets, by contrast, are more damaging because he pretends that they do not exist and because he keeps them to build his own power. Arya, similarly, prohibits all of Faerie from sharing the truth of her curse in order to protect her own power. These secrets are framed as inherently more malicious since they are designed to maintain an unequal social order.
In These Hollow Vows, secrets are treated as similar to betrayal in that they are weighted differently according to the motives behind them. Keeping secrets therefore does not necessarily make a character an antagonist in the text—though keeping secrets for selfish reasons does.
Balance Between Autonomy, Desperation, and Guilt
Brie spends the bulk of These Hollow Vows consumed with guilt for deceiving Sebastian. Though she does not precisely regret her actions, instead musing periodically that she would do all this and more to save her sister, she nevertheless feels persistent anxiety that she is doing wrong by lying to the man she loves. Though neither Brie nor the readers have access to Sebastian’s inner monologue, the novel does not suggest that he has the same qualms about deceiving her as she does him. This is framed as a function of choice, something that ties into the novel’s critique of the corrupting force of power. When someone lacking alternatives commits a betrayal, the text suggests, their motives are understandable. When someone with a considerable amount of power commits a betrayal in order to gain more power or privilege, by contrast, these motives are unforgivable.
Early in the novel, Brie’s friend Nik cautions her that “in this world, the only power [they] have is [their] autonomy” and offers advice: “Don’t let anyone back you into a corner. Don’t let your desperation make decisions for you” (20). Brie accepts this advice as sage but sees her autonomy as limited. She feels capable of making only one decision: to put her sister’s safety above all else. Brie’s lack of power in both Elora and Faerie means that she is not given the opportunity to choose how she protects her sister. The only method available to her is the one that Mordeus has directed her to take: deceit. Even so, she feels conflicted about the hurt that her actions cause. She does not reject this pain, instead considering it her due for her actions. This is another choice, albeit an ineffective one, that she makes. Brie can decide how to feel about her betrayals, even if she cannot decide—not in any meaningful capacity—whether to commit these betrayals in the first place. The novel therefore presents autonomy as something that must be grasped for, even when it is minuscule, in conditions of desperation. These choices, however small, allow Brie to retain agency even when she faces forces more powerful than her.
The novel thus routinely treats the act of betrayal as less important than the conditions and emotions that surround the betrayal. While Sebastian and Brie are the clearest division of this paradigm, other characters qualify. Finn, for example, betrays Brie, but he does so out of protectiveness of his people. Arya and Mordeus, in a sharp contrast, betray entire kingdoms and show selfish disregard for the suffering they cause. The novel suggests that an imbalance between bad actions and correspondingly bad feelings about those actions indicates the severity of the cruelty of a character’s actions.
Income Inequality and Societal Injustice
In These Hollow Vows, Ryan highlights the stark disparities between the wealthy and the poor, demonstrating how power structures—whether human or fae—exploit the vulnerable for their own gain. The opening scene immediately establishes this theme, as Brie steals from Gorst, a man so rich that he keeps a vault full of incalculable wealth, while Brie and Jas are trapped in ever-mounting debt. Brie’s frustration is not just about her own situation but about systemic injustice. For example, her friend Nik’s daughter needs to sell herself to the fae to purchase life-saving medicine when her mother falls ill. This transactional desperation reflects the cyclical nature of poverty in Elora, where the poor must sacrifice their freedom, safety, and dignity just to survive.
By contrast, at the Seelie Court, inequality is deliberately obscured by luxury. Sebastian attempts to shelter Brie from the kingdom’s darker aspects, hoping that she will embrace Faerie’s comforts without questioning how they are sustained. However, Brie remains consistently conscious of the contrast between her previous struggles in Elora and the effortless abundance of the Seelie Court. Simply having consistent access to food reminds her of the privilege she now has in Faerie—and how little she can do to help those she left behind, especially Jas. Rather than being seduced by wealth, Brie finds it alienating; while Sebastian views fine food and fancy clothes as gifts meant to endear her to him, Brie sees them as symbols of the system that keeps others like Jas in perpetual suffering.
Ryan’s critique of wealth inequality extends beyond Elora and into Faerie, rejecting the fairy-tale notion that upward mobility through marriage is an inherent reward for virtue. Traditional fairy tales often present social advancement—typically through marriage to a prince—as a just and desirable resolution. While modern royal romance novels might trouble these traditional structures of power somewhat more, they rarely disparage both the concept of monarchy and wealth as a broader concept. These Hollow Vows, however, challenges this idea by presenting both human and fae hierarchies as fundamentally oppressive. The monarchy of the Seelie Court, with its immortal rulers, does not represent a more just system than the human world—it only reframes the same dynamics of exploitation. Humans who enter into fae bargains to escape poverty in Elora simply find themselves in new forms of servitude, either through literal enslavement or through political manipulation.
Through Brie’s journey, the novel rejects the idea that wealth or power can be wielded benevolently within these entrenched systems. Unlike traditional protagonists who embrace royal status as a means of securing stability, Brie recognizes that no amount of personal advancement can fix a system built on inequality. Her growing feelings for Sebastian become entangled with this awareness, making her struggle not just a romantic dilemma but an ideological one about whether she can love someone who represents a system that she despises. By refusing to romanticize monarchy or wealth, These Hollow Vows offers a subversive take on the fantasy genre, presenting class consciousness as an inescapable reality rather than a mere backdrop for romance.
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