57 pages • 1 hour read
Stephanie GarberThe Ballad of Never After
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2022A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Background
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
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BetaSymbols & Motifs
The Valory Arch/Stones
The Valory Arch and the four stones (mirth, truth, luck, and youth) are at the center of the novel’s plot and conflict. The Valory Arch was a focus of conflict in Once Upon a Broken Heart, but the arch is not actually seen until the beginning of The Ballad of Never After. This creates intertextual suspense that resolves in The Ballad of Never After. When Evangeline first tries to open the arch without the stones, she is unable to, and the arch symbolizes the hierarchy of magic. As a key, Evangeline was born to open the arch, but even her birthright and destiny cannot substitute for the four stones. Magic has very specific requirements that must be followed; these rules and the sense of hierarchy drive the plot of the novel since they force Evangeline and Jacks to locate the stones for their various purposes. No explanation is given for the powers held by the four stones, which underscores the mystery of the magic; the reader is also left in suspense thus far in the series as to the value that mirth, truth, luck, and youth hold either for the Valors or for the North.
Throughout Once Upon a Broken Heart and The Ballad of Never After, rumors suggest that the Valory Arch holds either a great treasure or a magical abomination that will doom the world. When Evangeline finally opens the arch, she finds that it contains the sleeping Valors themselves. Garber leaves the reader to speculate as to which quality the Valors exhibit: On one hand, the Valors are a treasure—the once exalted ruling family of the North. On the other hand, the Valors could be described as magical abominations because their magic created Chaos, a monster who brought suffering to the North.
The Hollow
Jacks and Evangeline spend several chapters at the Hollow, the magical inn on the Merrywood land that symbolizes the precarity of safety in relation to the novel’s conflicts. Before the Valors closed themselves away in the arch, Vengeance Slaughterwood nearly killed Castor and destroyed the Merrywood Manor. As a Merrywood, Jacks has a strong connection to the Hollow and is still haunted by Vengeance’s attack, which he failed to stop. The Merrywood Land is dull, gray, and devoid of life following Vengeance’s attack; the exception is the Hollow while the mirth stone powers it. However, once the stone is removed, the Hollow, too, becomes lifeless.
Jacks brings Evangeline to the Hollow when the mirror curse with Apollo causes her to feel torture being exacted on Apollo elsewhere. No explanation is given for the Hollow’s magic, but it has the ability to stop all spells and curses; this lack of explanation underscores both the sense of magic and the sense of precarity in this setting. The moment Evangeline crosses into Hollow territory, her link to Apollo is severed. Jacks also becomes a different person at the Hollow, showing more affection toward Evangeline, which is retracted later. The mirth stone brings the Hollow back to life, causing food to appear by magic and keeping a warm aura about the place; this, too, disappears.
Curses
Curses are a significant motif throughout The Ballad of Never After. The curses on Evangeline and Apollo are the most prominent, and they drive the external conflict between the characters. LaLa, specifically, casts curses to get the results she wants with the hope of causing no injury to Evangeline: To break the archer curse, Evangeline needs to open the Valory Arch before Apollo kills her; in conjunction with this, LaLa casts the mirror curse so that Apollo won’t kill or harm Evangeline because doing so would cause harm to himself. While the novel’s main themes explore external forces that motivate characters’ actions and conflicts (manipulation, love, and jealousy), this motif underpins a fantastical story world in which characters can act on these motivations with magic.
Other curses are implied or cast “offstage” throughout the book. As the Unwed Bride, LaLa has spread the rumor that she is cursed to be left at the altar, but she later reveals this isn’t true. Jacks reveals that he is the original archer from “The Ballad of the Archer and the Fox,” meaning that he was cursed to hunt the girl he once loved. These “offstage” curses deepen the verisimilitude of this story world; while the narrative focuses on Evangeline’s perspective, there are multiple plotlines and character arcs that the reader does not observe. Jacks is also cursed with a fatal kiss, and while this has not been visited in detail since Once Upon a Broken Heart, it is not resolved by the end of The Ballad of Never After. Garber hence suspends this plotline throughout multiple books, suggesting that readers must wait for his kiss to play a role in the sequel. Similarly, Evangeline still has one of the broken heart scars that Jacks gave her in the prequel (one for three kisses he would instruct her to give), and this implies that her third kiss may later be shared with Jacks.
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By Stephanie Garber
