57 pages • 1 hour read
A. B. PoranekWhere the Dark Stands Still
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2024A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 1-7Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “The Girl Who Entered the Wood”
The people of Stodoła think that Liska Radost is a witch because she possesses magic and can see spirits. While the rest of her village celebrates Kupała Night, the teenager searches for the fern flower. Legends say that the rare bloom grants wishes and grows in the Driada, a forest where demons and ghosts dwell. She hopes to ask the fern flower to break her curse. She plunges into the forest armed only with a lantern and a red necklace meant to ward off demons. The spirit-wood is ruled by the demon Leszy, who “protects the travelers in the wood and the villages around it” (7). Before entering the forest, Liska makes an offering of bread and sausage to the Leszy, but she forfeits his protection when she accidentally strays from the path. She loses her necklace and trips over a root, dousing her lantern.
Chapter 2 Summary: “Trees with Too Many Eyes”
A majestic white stag with green eyes approaches Liska. She curtsies and asks, “I don’t suppose you know the way to the fern flower?” (9). The stag leads her to a river, and a shape-shifting demon called a rusałka drags her underwater. Liska’s magic bursts out of her in the shape of blue butterflies, driving the rusałka away. Next, she follows the stag to a semicircle of trees that have human eyes. They startle Liska, causing her to tumble down a ravine. To her surprise, she discovers a cobblestone path to a ruined manor with a crooked tower and a rusted gate flanked by statues of stags. The fern flower blooms in the manor’s courtyard.
Chapter 3 Summary: “A Not-So-Clever Fox”
The stag, who is really the Leszy, stops Liska from picking the fern flower and transforms into a tall man with white hair. He wears the stag’s skull over his face, a woolen sukmana, and a green-striped sash. Liska means “fox,” and the Leszy mockingly calls her a “not-so-clever fox” for entering his domain (19). She reveals that she wants the flower so that she can wish away her magic, but she doesn’t explain that she is desperate to be rid of it because of what happened to her father and her cousin.
The Leszy offers to grant Liska’s desire in exchange for a year of service, and she accepts the bargain because she wants to belong in her village. The Leszy snaps off a piece of his antlers and turns it into a wooden fetter around Liska’s wrist. He orders her to follow two rules: “[S]tay out of my way” and “never leave the estate grounds without me, nor the manor after dark” (22).
Chapter 4 Summary: “The House under the Rowan Tree”
The Leszy leads Liska inside his enchanted manor, which he calls the House under the Rowan Tree. That night, Liska sees a spectral hound with glowing red eyes. The next morning, she explores the sentient manor, which bewilders the peasant girl with its strange combination of magic and opulence. When she washes her face, she sees the streak of hair that turned white when she used magic in front of her cousin. Liska banishes the memory from her thoughts and hurries to the manor’s kitchen. She prepares the Leszy’s breakfast, which she leaves outside his study atop the tower.
Liska pities the neglected manor and resolves “to nurture it back to health and see light return to its forgotten halls” (30). While she is hard at work, a mysterious door “painted like a midnight sky in indigo and star-specks of gold” suddenly appears and vanishes just as quickly (31).
Chapter 5 Summary: “A Broken Sort of Magic”
That evening, the Leszy reveals that he asked Liska to become his servant so that she can use her magic to assist him. This horrifies the girl, whose faith teaches that magic is evil. The Leszy alludes to a pre-Christian past when those with supernatural powers were revered as czarownik. He chokes her with branches to make her magic burst forth and then releases her. Liska used to be able to manage her magic more easily, and she could even diagnose animals’ ailments by touching them. She discovered her magic when she was seven years old, and her parents taught her to hide her powers. The Leszy says that her magic is more broken than any he has seen in his 700 years, and he resolves to repair it.
The ghost hound reappears and urges Liska, “Get out before he wakes” (44). When she tells the Leszy what she saw, he assures her that he will strengthen the wards around his manor and tells her not to trust anyone besides him. That night, Liska retires to a guest bedroom. She finds garments from different eras in a wardrobe and wonders what befell the clothes’ owners.
Chapter 6 Summary: “Nothing of Interest to a Village Girl”
During Liska’s second morning in the manor, the mysterious door reappears, but it vanishes when the Leszy threatens the sentient house. Liska spends the next two days attempting to make the door reappear before giving up and resuming her efforts to tidy the estate.
The narrative flashes back to when Liska and her cousin, Marysieńka, were nine. Marysieńka always dreamed of moving to the city, but Liska wanted to stay in the village. The girls discussed legends about the Leszy, and Liska’s father told her that the demon has a tree in place of a heart. A boy named Tomasz Prawota overhears the girls talking about magic and says that his devout mother thinks that there is something wrong with Liska. Marysieńka comes to her cousin’s defense, and Liska tells herself that she must become inconspicuous.
The narrative returns to Liska’s present. The Leszy leaves the manor with a sword and orders her to wait inside. Liska grows increasingly anxious in the hours he is away. The ghost hound appears for an instant and growls, “He wakes.” Then the injured Leszy staggers inside the manor. He brushes off her concern, but she notices a trail of reddish tree sap in his wake.
Chapter 7 Summary: “Scars and Duty”
Liska follows the Leszy to his study, where she finds him unconscious on the floor. Her mother is a healer, and she shared this knowledge with Liska. She finds three deep, poisoned slashes on the demon’s back. He awakens while she’s tending to his injuries, and the deer skull he wears as a mask falls off. Liska is taken aback to see that he looks like a handsome boy only a few years older than her. She helps him drink a potion that cures the poison and stitches his wounds closed.
The Leszy explains that the Driada extends throughout the nation of Orlica and that it’s his duty to maintain order among all the demons in the spirit-wood. The injuries he received fighting a strzygoń (a vampire-like demon) that evening are only the latest in a long series of scars he’s acquired. Liska helps the demon to his room, surprised at the concern she feels. She recalls how her mother recently found her a job as a laundress in the city of Gwiazdno. Liska ran off to search for the fern flower rather than face a life of loneliness and fear of her own magic.
Chapters 1-7 Analysis
Poranek draws inspiration from Slavic folklore, Beauty and the Beast, and Gothic literature in her YA dark fantasy romance. As is conventional in YA fantasy novels, the protagonist is a young woman who possesses a remarkable ability that makes her an outsider in her society and longs for a normal life: “She will do anything to prove that she is not dangerous, that she belongs” (4). These conventions set the plot into motion by driving Liska into the spirit-wood in search of the fern flower. The setting of the Driada allows the author to incorporate Slavic folklore through mythical creatures like the Leszy and the rusałka. According to Slavic legends, the fern flower blooms on Kupała Night, also known as Midsummer Night. Those who wish to obtain the magical gifts it imparts, such as wealth, luck in love, or the ability to communicate with animals, must contend with the wicked spirits guarding the flower. In this novel, the fern flower exists, and it gives the protagonist hope of redemption. Through worldbuilding details like these, the author celebrates The Enduring Relevance of Myths and Folktales.
Gothic literature also shapes the story’s settings. Spine-chilling locales and ominous atmospheres are essential to the genre, and many Gothic novels take place in forbidding manors or derelict castles. Poranek upholds this convention with her descriptions of the House under the Rowan Tree and its “woeful elegance”: “It is not really a manor, anyway, more the memory of one—shattered windows and flaking paint and a crooked tower that barely remember how to be a home anymore” (14). This traditionally Gothic setting gives the dark fairy tale reimagining a tense, eerie mood.
The fairy tale Beauty and the Beast strongly influences the story’s structure in this section. Originally published as a novella in 1740, Gabrielle-Suzanna Barbot De Villeneuve’s work has been adapted by writers around the world. Just as the magical fern flower motivates Liska to venture into the spirit-wood, in Beauty and the Beast, a flower sets the plot into motion. In the original fairy tale, the Beast confronts Beauty’s father after he picks one of the Beast’s cherished roses for his daughter (the rose possesses magical qualities in some adaptations). However, Beauty’s father bargains away the freedom of one of his children in exchange for his life, whereas Liska finds the Leszy’s manor and forges her own pact. This streamlines the narrative and increases the agency of Poranek’s protagonist. The events of Chapters 7 and 8 also parallel the fairy tale. Beauty decides to accept the Beast’s marriage proposal after she nurses him back to health, and Liska’s relationship with the Leszy changes after she saves his life. She sees the Leszy without his deer skull mask for the first time as she’s tending to his wounds and realizes “[h]e is rather pleasant to look at when he isn’t looming or scowling” (62). Liska’s budding attraction toward the Leszy paves the way for the dark fantasy’s paranormal love story.
The Quest for Belonging and Redemption drives the protagonist’s actions in these chapters. Liska’s fellow villagers think that she is “as wicked as the dark magic harbored in the spirit-wood” (2), and she risks her life by plunging into the Driada in a desperate effort to change their minds. Poranek builds suspense by waiting to reveal why Liska craves redemption, but these early chapters offer clues that either her father or her cousin died because of her magic: The last time she used her power, “it left blood on her hands and death in her wake” (13). Although the details of Liska’s tragic past remain a mystery, the guilt and shame she carries are made clear by her acceptance of the Leszy’s bargain: “Yes, a single year at the whims of a wood demon is worth a lifetime of belonging” (21). At the start of the story, Liska believes that denying parts of herself to conform to others’ expectations is the cost of living in the community, and she’s willing to pay the price.
Liska’s desire to use the fern flower to wish away her power reveals how far she is from The Magic of Self-Acceptance at the start of the novel. The Leszy compares her magic to “a mad animal that lashes out on instinct” (39). This metaphor suggests that Liska’s magic is not inherently wicked but instead has become dangerous and unpredictable because it was caged and mistreated. As the novel continues, the Leszy plays an essential role in helping Liska to accept herself and her magic.
The author uses animal symbolism to offer insights into Liska and the Leszy’s characterization. The Leszy’s stag form represents his regal status as the ruler of the spirit-wood. The narrator accentuates his regal bearing by describing his antlers as a “majestic crown.” Butterflies also carry great significance because Liska’s magic takes their form. As a result, butterflies function as a motif of The Magic of Self-Acceptance, and Liska’s fearful attitude toward the butterflies in these chapters reflects her need for self-love.
Poranek’s color symbolism draws from Slavic folklore. For example, red traditionally represents protection in Slavic cultures. This is seen in the red ribbons Dobrawa weaves in Liska’s hair to keep her safe “from spirits and demons and the evils of the spirit-wood” (3), as well as the “string of beads in rowanberry red” that Liska wears into the Driada as “a ward against demons” (6). Due to the symbolic meaning of red in general and rowanberries in particular, it may seem ironic that the Leszy’s manor is called the House under the Rowan Tree. However, it’s later revealed that he is not actually a demon. Poranek associates the color white with the Leszy. He first appears in the guise of a white stag, and his humanoid form is a “[m]oon-pale” figure with pale skin, white hair, and a white sukmana. Slavic folktales use white to symbolize the realm of spirits, which is the source of magic. As such, the Leszy’s pallid appearance underlines his tremendous supernatural strength. The novel’s color symbolism depicts the Leszy as a wild and immensely powerful yet ultimately protective figure.
Poranek uses foreshadowing to build suspense in these early chapters and to offer hints about characters who have yet to be revealed. In Chapter 2, the Leszy deliberately leads Liska to the rusałka, and it’s later revealed that he was testing her magical power to see if Weles would accept her as an offering. Similarly, the Leszy’s first rule is to “stay out of [his] way” (22), because he secretly plans to sacrifice her to Weles and doesn’t want to grow attached to her. In Chapter 5, the ghost hound’s warning that Liska should “[g]et out before he wakes” offers a clue about the old god who slumbers inside the Leszy’s heart (44). The vanishing door and the clothes in the guest room also offer clues about the apprentices who were sacrificed to Weles. Foreshadowing adds to the mysteries around the manor and hints at the Leszy’s hidden intentions.
