To Ms. Kelly Barnhill...

 Dear Ms. Barnhill, 

My name is Jillian Turner and I am a student from Normandale Community College in Bloomington, Minnesota. I have recently read your book as a part of my Children's and Young Adult Literature class where we have been analyzing the symbolism, the characters, and the overall messages behind your novel. After finishing your novel, I have a few questions for you! 

First, I can not help but notice the religious parallels of the Bog and God. You first write, "The Bog was everything, and everything was the Bog," (p. 83). Then later you write, "In the beginning, there was the Bog. And the Bog covered the world and the Bog was the world and the world was the Bog," (p. 381). I felt that this reminded me of something, and I realized it was very similar to John 1:1 in the Bible, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Did you intend this? If so, it also explains Glerk being the one to take Xan away into the Bog when she dies, almost like God bringing the deceased to Heaven with Him. This could also make a case for Glerk's spirit being "...life giving and life sustaining," (p. 357). I also see a mild connection to Jesus Christ's resurrection or judgement day in Glerk's poem after he leaves with Xan, "...I have gone. I will return," (p. 383). If this is a nod to religious symbolism, then would that mean the Sorrow Eater is a body for Satan? Satan is seen as a a monster who preys on people's weakness, and Glerk describes the Sorrow Eater as one who, "...spreads misery and devours sorrow," (p. 358). Sorrow is seen as a weakness and dangerous throughout the novel, so Sister Ignatia has been preying on the weakness of the people. Also, the Sorrow Eater betrayed her fellow enmagicked people when the volcano erupted and started the Protectorate, where Lucifer fell and created his own kingdom to entrap humans from Heaven. All of these parallels are super interesting, and if they are intentional, what made you decide to put them there? They seem well thought out and developed under multiple layers. Are there any other symbols I missed? I would love to know. 

On a lighter note, I want to know how you chose the names of the characters you did! Luna's seems fairly clear as she was given moonlight to drink and has a crescent moon birthmark on her forehead, but Glerk, Fyrian, and Xan are not common picks. Well, I suppose nothing in this book is very common, but I think you know what I mean. Fyrian is another choice that makes sense with further research. Fyrian is verb meaning "to supply with fire", and seeing as Fyrian is a dragon...good choice. With Xan, I found that it is of Greek origin, meaning "defending men". I suppose if you think about this in a larger context, this could mean defender of mankind, and Xan does play a role in defending mankind against the Sorrow Eater. Antain's is another name that I found a meaning for. It means "worthy of praise", and I believe your character Antain is indeed worthy of praise. He goes and tries to kill a witch just to save his family! That's praiseworthy to me. Did you decide the names after you wrote the characters? Or did you build the characters around the names? I would love to know your process. 

Now, I feel as though I could ask you many more questions, but I am sure you have plenty of things to do other than answer a million questions. Thank you so much for taking the time to write this book and build this world, it was a pleasure to read. I have major respect for your craft and hope to be a writer one day as well. 

Thank you again, 

Jillian Turner