40 pages • 1 hour read
Rachel Lynn SolomonToday Tonight Tomorrow
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2020A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Howl
Howl is a long-standing tradition at Westview High School. Howl is the final event of the year for seniors, during which they participate in an elaborate scavenger hunt around Seattle. Each student is given a target, or student, that they must take out of the game by way of pulling a colored band off of their arm. The last person remaining in the game is crowned Howl champion and is awarded a check for $5,000. Initially for Rowan Roth, Howl is an opportunity to beat her long-time rival, Neil McNair, one last time. For Rowan, winning Howl also means achieving satisfying closure, both in her high school career and in her somewhat tense relationship with Neil. However, more than anything, Howl becomes an opportunity for Rowan to reflect back on the past four years and push herself in ways she never has before. It is through the experience of Howl that Rowan takes major leaps in her life—she tells her parents that she is writing a romance novel, shares her writing with others for the first time, meets her favorite author, and most importantly, realizes that she is in love with Neil. Though Howl starts out as a means to get back at her nemesis, Howl is ultimately the vessel through which Rowan begins her new post-high school life.
Rowan Roth’s Guide to High School Success
The summer before her freshman year of high school, 14-year-old Rowan creates a “Guide to a Successful High School Career,” which is essentially a checklist of experiences and achievements she hopes to accrue by the end of her senior year. These check points include finding the perfect boyfriend and beating Neil McNair at every possible opportunity, most notably by earning the spot of valedictorian. When Rowan rediscovers this list on the last day of high school, she cannot help but feel like a failure knowing that she has accomplished almost none of the things on the list. When she eventually comes to terms with the fact that many of her goals on the list were either superficial or simply unrealistic, Rowan also realizes that she has had a storied high school career, regardless of her disappointments. Finding this guide enables Rowan to realize how much she has grown in four years, especially considering that her goals and core values have changed significantly during that time.
Romance Novels
Seeing as Rowan is an aspiring romance author—and that the novel itself falls within the genre—romance novels play a major role both in Rowan’s life and the story itself. As a super-fan of the genre, Rowan is constantly reading romance novels, looking to them for both personal comfort and professional inspiration. Despite her passion for them, the stigma surrounding romance novels—namely that they are of little value or intellect—forces Rowan to hide her interest from her friends and family. In fact, the shame surrounding her passion for romance novels runs so deep that Rowan goes so far as to physically hide the books from those around her.
After spending all of Howl with Neil, who is supportive of her romance novel-writing aspirations, Rowan gradually becomes more and more comfortable with the idea of sharing her passion with others. Within the span of several hours, Rowan manages to read an excerpt from her romance novel at an open-mic event, meet her favorite romance author, and tell her parents and friends that she herself is in the process of penning a romance novel. Throughout the novel, it becomes abundantly clear that Rowan deeply values romance novels and is impacted by the acts of reading and writing them, as they enhance her understanding of life, love, and herself.
