Trigger Warnings,

Spoiler Alerts & Gothic Fairy Tale Themes

Like many of the fairy tales, this story contains some hard topics. You deserve to know, if you want to, what you’re getting into.

Self-Harm

The princess of this story lives in a tower all by herself, and sometimes she takes out the trauma of that—the powerlessness and loneliness and expectation—on herself. Since she has no sharp objects in the room, she hits herself. I didn’t take lightly writing about this. I watched interviews and thought deeply about the topic. I felt it was incredibly relevant to the archetypal princess story. Even in modern tales, such as Zelda, the princess is often asked to sacrifice herself for the ease, safety or supposed good of others. Embedded in the very identity of the princess is the idea that she might be more appreciated as a noble and dead person than a scrappy and living one. I don’t like that narrative, but it think our main character has to grapple with it, question it and let it influence the choice she ultimately makes.

Violence Against Women

A backdrop of experienced violence is t of one of the main character’s motivations to pursue reckless revenge. And so, the threat of violence hangs over more than one woman in the story. At the crux of it is violence of women against women.

Family Abuse

This family is not terribly good at checking in on each other and validating feelings or even vital needs. For that reason, their seemingly mundane acts can feel terrifying and manipulative. This family does not hit each other, but their choices violate each other’s rights and boundaries.

Mental, Spiritual and Paranormal Trauma

Some people in the story fear the devil, and others fear pagan gods. Some offer platitudes of religion or social outrage. Some experience PTSD and mental breakdowns. The psycho-emotional struggle is never explicitly defined in the story, and the reader might experience it in different and personal ways.