49 pages • 1-hour read
Verity Vox and the Curse of Foxfire
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Prologue-Part 1, Chapter 3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of illness, death, and child death.
Part 1: “The Girl”
Prologue Summary: “A Man Comes to Town”
Located in a valley near a mountain base, the town of Foxfire is inaccessible but for a bridge. People used to frequent the former mining town. One visitor was a salesman named Earl. Initially, Earl sold the villagers fine things for a cheap price. Eventually he began fulfilling their wishes in exchange for higher prices.
One winter, a man asked Earl to heal his sick daughter in exchange for a steep price. When the girl died anyway, the father was furious and drove Earl out of town. As he left, Earl destroyed the bridge, trapping the villagers in the valley. The land dried up, and the animals grew ill. The people could barely survive. Over the years, some people started venturing to the mountain, where Earl had settled, to make deals with him for their survival. Many never returned. Meanwhile, the town suffered. Finally, one day a young village girl summoned help, and a witch responded.
Part 1, Chapter 1 Summary: “A Cat Gets a Message”
Verity Vox is a witch in training. She lives with a couple, Edna and Bruce, above their bakery. Per the conditions of Verity’s witch training, she must spend a year at a time in different locations, using her powers to help the residents however she can. When her time in one place comes to an end, she must read the signs to travel to a new location.
On the last day of her yearlong tenure with Edna and Bruce, Verity searches for a sign for where to go next. She repeatedly scoots her familiar (magical companion), Jack, out of the way, irritated that she does not know where she is needed from here.
Jack is carrying a leaf around in his mouth, and he won’t let go, even when Edna dresses him in a christening dress. She and Bruce love Jack and are sad to see him and Verity go. In preparation for their departure, Verity starts laying memory enchantments on the couple and their home so that they won’t remember her or Jack. This is part of being a witch. A witch in training cannot let herself be remembered.
Finally, Edna points out the leaf in Jack’s mouth. Noticing it for the first time, Verity realizes it’s the sign she’s been looking for. It is scrawled with a message reading, “We’re cursed. Send help!” (16). Although confused, Verity bids Edna and Bruce goodbye and sets off on her broom with Jack.
As they leave, Verity sings a song. She uses songs to make enchantments. She hopes the wind will direct her and Jack. Suddenly, the leaf bursts into embers that fly through the air. Verity follows the embers as they drift on the wind, eventually leading her and Jack to the Appalachian mountains. They fly over a ruined bridge and into a desolate town. Verity feels a strong force working against her but is unsure if it is magic or the wind. She continues singing until she and Jack land.
Part 1, Chapter 2 Summary: “A Girl Gets a Room”
Verity and Jack spend the evening in the forest, unsure of where they are or where to go. Verity has the distinct feeling of being watched. She recalls Mother Downey—one of the older witches in her coven—talking about the magic of mountains, asserting that even they have desires.
In the morning, Verity and Jack make their way into the town. The place is deserted. Finally they arrive at “what appeared to be the town’s Main Street” (26), where they discover a dilapidated shop called Green’s General Goods. Inside, they meet a young woman named Gillian (Gilly) Green.
Gilly is skeptical of Verity when she says she is a witch who has been summoned to help the town. She demands that Verity prove herself by mending her broken gramophone. Verity is shocked to see that the back of the general store is packed with broken belongings.
After Verity successfully mends the gramophone, Gilly is shocked and suspicious that Verity won’t accept payment for her work. However, she softens when Verity reveals what the leaf that summoned her said. Gilly admits that the town, Foxfire, has indeed been cursed for many years.
Gilly launches into the story of Earl. She explains that he has controlled Foxfire for many years and now calls himself the king of the mountain. People try to bargain with him for food or their health, but many lose their lives trying. Meanwhile, everything in Foxfire keeps dying or breaking. All the objects at the shop are cursed.
Gilly and Verity come to an arrangement: Gilly agrees to let Verity stay with her, and in return, Verity promises to help fix and return the villagers’ broken belongings at the shop.
Part 1, Chapter 3 Summary: “A Bit of Gardening Is Done”
Over the following days, Verity slowly works to mend the broken objects. Despite her powers, it’s hard work because of the curse. She tells Gilly she had to transmute the cursed energy from the gramophone to repair it. She and Gilly agree that Verity should do the same with the other objects and return them to the villagers one by one.
Gilly shows Verity to her room. She is astounded when Verity uses her magic to transform the space, extracting furnishings from her hat, which has an extension charm.
After Verity fixes Mrs. Mason’s rocking chair, Gilly leads her to the old woman’s house to return it. The trip takes a while because Gilly refuses to fly on Verity’s broom, and they have to walk to the edge of Foxfire. Mrs. Mason is upset when they arrive, insisting she wants nothing to do with witches or curses. She softens when Gilly defends Verity. Finally, Mrs. Mason admits that she needs help with her shriveled garden. Verity uses her magic to heal the soil and grow rows of fresh produce. Mrs. Mason is overwhelmed with gratitude.
Over the following days, Verity mends and returns more belongings. She uses her magic to do more favors for the villagers. Everyone is skeptical of her at first but thankful for her help.
While working in the shop one day, Verity asks Gilly about her dreams. Gilly admits that she wants to be a seamstress and turn her family’s former store into a dress shop.
An unexpected visitor’s arrival interrupts their conversation. It is Theresa Tarry. She is carrying a doll that once belonged to her daughter, Tacita Tarry, who went missing a week ago. She demands that Verity go to the mountain to find her. Gilly argues that Tacita is dead, but Theresa won’t listen. Verity is surprised that no one has mentioned Tacita since her arrival. Finally, Theresa explains that Tacita was with her beau, Del Miller, the day she disappeared. She urges Verity to confront the Millers about what happened.
Verity meditates on all that she’s learned. She is wary of confronting Earl in the mountain but decides she must go in search of Tacita. First, however, she plans to visit the Millers. Gilly warns her of the dangers when she hears Verity’s plan, but Verity has made up her mind.
Prologue-Part 1, Chapter 3 Analysis
The opening chapters of the novel are devoted to worldbuilding. Because Verity Vox and the Curse of Foxfire is a work of fantasy, its narrative rules are unique. The novel’s third-person narrator assumes a traditional fairy tale stance, describing the novel’s world from an omniscient point of view that has insight into how and why each storied dynamic came to be. This is particularly evident in the Prologue, in which the narrator describes how the town of Foxfire fell into ruin and how the main character Verity Vox—a witch in training—will come to the town to save it. The Prologue acts as exposition that establishes the novel’s central settings, conflicts, and stakes, too. Because Foxfire is secluded—located in “the heart of a valley, at the base of a mountain” and caught under a powerful curse (1)—Verity is the only one who might deliver the town and its suffering residents, establishing both the high stakes and how Verity will become involved.
Verity Vox’s arrival in Foxfire initiates one of the novel’s main themes, the Use of Power for Good Versus Evil. In the Prologue, the narrator introduces the traveling salesman Earl as the novel’s antagonist, or villain. The embodiment of evil, Earl has used his power to harm, coerce, and exploit the Foxfire inhabitants. Although Earl has been banished from Foxfire in the narrative present, he continues “watching [the Foxfire people’s] every move, lying in wait to bargain away what little joy they had left” (3). Everything Earl has done, he has done out of selfish gain, and at the townspeople’s expense. When Verity arrives in Foxfire, she only wants to help out of the goodness of her heart. However, because the townspeople are so accustomed to Earl using his power to harm them, they are skeptical of Verity’s allegedly purehearted intentions, wary of how that power could be abused.
The Foxfire inhabitants’ initial suspicion of Verity conveys how a community might mistrust a new leader figure after years of being abused by a powerful figure. As Gilly tells Verity when the two first meet, “[W]e don’t brook with witches round these parts” (29). Gilly knows that, like herself, none of her neighbors will appreciate Verity’s attempts to save them, introducing Verity’s challenge of Navigating Community Hurt, Need, and Healing. Earl’s exploitation has taught Foxfire to mistrust anyone who wants to use magic to allegedly help them. In the context of Verity Vox, magic is a metaphor for power—be it political, emotional, or otherwise. Gilly and her friends don’t believe someone like Verity would want to use their magical powers to assist them because Earl once promised the same, and he ultimately ruined their town and endangered their chances of survival. Verity must therefore prove that she has indeed “arrived in good faith” (37) by proving herself to the town of Foxfire (37). In the process, she must look inward to discover how she can best help the community.
Verity quickly shifts to a new approach to the community, showing that she is already growing in her understanding of how to use her power and how to help Foxfire. In mending their broken, cursed belongings, visiting their homes, and doing favors using her magic, Verity is also trying to redefine Foxfire’s understanding of magic and power in general. Verity wants to complete her witch training, but she also wants to earn the Foxfire townspeople’s trust. For a community to overcome their history of exploitation, the narrative implies, a new power must work to gain their respect and confidence. Verity begins to do so by meeting each Foxfire resident where they are. A prime example is her visit to Mrs. Mason’s home: Although Mrs. Mason is suspicious, Verity is patient and heals her garden. The image of the shriveled garden coming back to life is a metaphor for the community healing that is already beginning in these chapters. This imagery also conveys the restorative work that power used for good can accomplish.
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