Foul Lady Fortune

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2022

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue-Chapter 12

Chapters 13-23

Chapters 24-36

Chapter 37-Epilogue

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

Chemicals

Chemicals are a ubiquitous motif in the novel. They appear at frequent intervals and are dispensed by several characters. Their use speaks to the theme Quest for Redemption. The most obvious wielder of chemical weapons is Rosalind. As an assassin, she’s adept at administering poisons. She knows how to kill with them and how to withhold death by administering the correct antidote. She’s armed with an arsenal of poisons at all times and spends her sleepless nights brewing new batches of her favorite weapon. Her lethal activities are motivated by a desire to achieve redemption for herself. She believes that killing for a good cause can assuage her guilt for having wrought so much destruction while under Dimitri’s toxic influence.

Like Foul Lady Fortune, the preceding duology featured destructive chemicals and strange new science to tip the balance of power in the city. The chemical poisonings that occur at frequent intervals in this novel can be attributed to the same motive. Lady Hong is attempting to create a super-soldier formula so that the Japanese can create a Pan-Asian empire to rival the West. This is her solution to the chaos in China and a form of personal redemption. She tells Orion that all her work has been for the benefit of her family as she injects him with an even more potent formula to turn him into a killing machine. Chemicals become the strange vehicle by which both Rosalind and Lady Hong achieve salvation.

Factions

Factions are another motif that occurs in various contexts in the novel. Their frequent presence relates to the theme A Country Divided. The most obvious examples relate directly to the political chaos in China. Western colonial influence exists in opposition to Pan-Asian imperialism. Japanese interests oppose Chinese sovereignty. Within Chinese culture itself, Nationalists oppose Communists.

In addition to the obvious political interests jockeying for power, Shanghai has a history of powerful gangs that vie to run the city. The preceding duology told the tale of the war between the Scarlet Gang and the White Flowers. On a personal level, it related the struggle for love between the heirs of each gang.

More factionalism is evident within the Hong clan. The general’s trial for treason creates conflict between his sons. Oliver sees General Hong as guilty, while Orion sees him as innocent. The battle between the brothers plays out politically as Oliver sides with the Communists and Orion becomes a Nationalist agent. Phoebe plays the part of double agent by seeming to favor Orion while fulfilling an assassin’s role for the Communists. The Hong parents represent factionalism too in their overt repudiation of the Japanese while colluding with them in secret. Factions split and recombine in new formations as individuals switch alliances or assume the roles of double agents. No one can tell enemy from friend in the shifting world of Shanghai politics.

Duos

Duos are a third motif that repeats throughout the novel. The appearance of couples or counterpart relationships takes its inspiration from the original duology, which was a modern-day take on Romeo and Juliet. Roma Montagov of the White Flowers and Juliette Cai of the Scarlet Gang fall in love even as their respective factions compete for control of Shanghai. Their story is echoed in Foul Lady Fortune by more than one couple. This motif relates to the theme Shifting Personas and Authentic Identity. The most obvious parallel to Roma and Juliette is Rosalind and Orion. Neither character is aware of the other’s real identity as a lethal killer, yet they fall in love anyway. Even after the truth is known, they refuse to relinquish one another.

Similarly, Oliver and Celia have formed a romantic relationship. Celia’s gender identity doesn’t trouble Oliver, but the two keep secrets from each other. Oliver won’t tell Celia about his involvement with Priest, and Celia doesn’t reveal the degree to which she’s helping Rosalind. Phoebe and Silas constitute a third duo. Yet again, secrets are unspoken between them. Silas doesn’t reveal all his covert spy activity to Phoebe, and she never tells him about her role as an assassin.

Oliver and Orion are another pair. They’re hostile to each other’s political views but still maintain a fraternal bond. Their parents are similarly aligned. In public, they’re supposedly estranged, yet they’re secretly united in colluding with the Japanese. None of the major characters in the novel, no matter how closely aligned with their partners, turns out to be who they seem.