63 pages • 2 hours read
Kristen CiccarelliHeartless Hunter
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.
Themes
Challenging Limiting Perceptions
Content Warning: This section mentions graphic violence, execution, intimate partner violence, and abuse.
Rune and Gideon are defined by the limited perceptions that others assign to them, or that they assign to each other. It is these limited perceptions that prevent them from seeing the others’ true potential as their lives become more intertwined throughout the novel. Unable to see past their pigeon-holed view of the other, Gideon and Rune vastly underestimate their opponent’s intelligence and cunning.
Gideon is extremely guilty of this practice. When he first met Rune years ago, he judged her immediately based on her clothing. Because she was wearing an expensive dress to a gathering filled with poor families, Gideon assumed she was ignorant and considered herself better than him. This limited perception he creates of her based on a brief first impression prompts Gideon to treat her unkindly. What could have been the start of a friendship or something more soured, and Rune began to hate him in return.
In the present day, Gideon falls easily for Rune’s ruse as a shallow, vapid socialite. Many other suitors think the same of Rune, and she capitalizes on this. Gideon accepts her at face value, never bothering to look deeper than surface level. As a result, he underestimates her intelligence and cunning. When Harrow shares her suspicions that Rune might be the Crimson Moth with Gideon, he finds it “difficult to reconcile” the ruthless, disturbed, and evil traits he associates with the Moth “with the ridiculous girl in the opera box” (45). This new information does not broaden his perception of Rune. Rather than recognize Rune for her kindness and compassion, Gideon’s perception of her is overshadowed by his hate for witches. He believes that she must be as evil as the rest if she truly is the Crimson Moth. This also leads him to believe she is capable of the vicious murders that “usually took place right before she struck” (24). His one-track focus on who he believes the Crimson Moth to be makes Gideon oblivious to signs that prove she is not the murderer.
By contrast, while Rune remains perpetually wary of Gideon, she does not have the same degree of limited perceptions about him. She believes him to be exactly who he is. Yet, she quickly judges him by his merit rather than making generalizations about him based on the behavior of other witch-hunters. Rune does, however, have a limited perception of the Reign of Witches and her kind. Based on her experiences with herself, her Nan, and other witches she’s helped save, Rune struggles to see the bad. All she’s seen proof of is a kind community of supportive, albeit magical, women. It is not until she learns of Gideon’s experiences with Cressida that she challenges her idealization of all witches. This challenge of her perspective allows Rune to understand Gideon’s hatred despite not supporting his actions. It also allows her to offer forgiveness to him when he escorts her to the purging platform in the novel’s concluding section.
Ethical Dilemmas in a Divided Society
The New Republic is a highly divided society that pits supporters of its regime against those who support the former Reign of Witches. Republic patriots commit themselves to the expulsion of witches due to their staunch beliefs that all witches are evil and delight in others’ misfortune. They believe their ultimate goal of public safety is just enough cause for the mass murder of witches. Witches who were formerly peaceful are driven to flee the city or fight back to escape execution. Any fight against the Blood Guards or witch-haters is seen as proof of the danger they pose to society and another reason for hate to fester.
This extreme divide between factions unable to be bridged leads to many ethical dilemmas. Family and friends are torn apart either due to personal beliefs or betrayal. Rune must turn in her grandmother to be purged rather than be labeled a witch sympathizer and die beside her. This choice haunts Rune for years, and she devotes all her time “trying to make amends for that night” (12). Aside from Alex and Verity, Rune has no friends, as she believes they’d turn her into the Blood Guard if they knew what she is. Alex is in a difficult moral dilemma due to his relationships with Rune and Gideon. On one hand, he loves Rune despite knowing she’s a witch and would do anything to protect her. On the other hand, he loves his brother despite knowing he’s a witch-hunter and would do anything to protect him. With Rune and Gideon on opposing sides of a society where both cannot coexist, Alex is often forced to remain neutral rather than betray one or the other. However, his decision to aid the Crimson Moth in rescuing witches is a clear violation of Gideon’s trust and guiding principles.
Despite his hatred of witches, Gideon doesn’t approve of the Tasker Brothers’ ruthless beatings they give to those they apprehend. While Gideon doesn’t tolerate the unnecessary cruelty, he “had been told by his betters that beating a witch senseless was no different from beating a disease-ridden rat” (22). Gideon, too, faces ethical dilemmas in his work despite fully believing in the cause against witches.
To satisfy their ends, Rune and Gideon participate in morally ambiguous trickery while pretending to court one another for information. Rune hopes to use Gideon to save Seraphine, and Gideon hopes to catch the Crimson Moth. Their double-sided faux courtship that grows into real feelings is another example of how easily characters can compromise their morals to survive in a society so drastically divided.
Love as a Dangerous and Redeeming Force
Love is both a dangerous and redeeming force in the novel. Gideon’s love for Cressida put his family in unimaginable danger and left Gideon and Alex as orphans. Alex’s love for Gideon prompted him to initially support the Red Peace and Gideon’s profession as a witch hunter. He also extends that same compassion and mercy to Cressida, which allows her to escape the night Alex claims he killed her.
Alex’s love for Rune even after learning she’s a witch is redeeming. He not only redeems his past involvement in the rebellion by aiding the Crimson Moth in saving countless witches from execution but also helps Rune redeem herself from turning in her own Nan. Alex’s unconditional support allows Rune to create the Crimson Moth alter-ego to repent for the guilt she feels. Alex’s love for Rune is also dangerous. It puts him in danger of being branded a witch-sympathizer and executed for treason. It also places his relationship with this bother in jeopardy. Though his friendship provides Rune with many advantages, there is that dangerous “what-if” lingering below the surface. What if Alex betrays her to Gideon? What if his loyalty toward Gideon outweighs his loyalty to her?
Rune’s romance with Gideon is the most dangerous, and ironically, the most redeeming. What begins as a false courtship soon turns real. Yet the truth of the matter remains the same—Gideon is “a cold, brutal soldier who wanted nothing more than to put the Crimson Moth to death” (61). Rune is in constant danger any time they interact. While it is clear to readers that Gideon is never in any true danger at Rune’s hands, he believes the opposite. His past experiences with Cressida and his certainty that the Crimson Moth is behind the latest gruesome murders of many Blood Guards bolster this opinion. Therefore, his growing feelings with Rune, whom he believes might be the Crimson Moth, prove dangerous in more ways than one. Not only is the Crimson Moth persona dangerous in itself but also Gideon’s feelings for Rune might put his judgment into question. At the worst, he could be accused of being a witch-sympathizer. At the least, the woman he’s come to love could betray him.
Though Gideon hates Rune more than ever by the end of the novel, their romance has many redeeming qualities. Rune proves to Gideon that there are good, compassionate witches. This might be enough for Gideon to realize that mass expulsions of witches might not be the answer to peace. Conversely, Gideon’s experiences open Rune’s eyes to the societal issues due to the Reign of Witches she hadn’t seen before. The Rosebloods were more corrupt than Rune had ever known and used forbidden magic to retain their power. With this new knowledge and Cressida’s return, Rune begins to acknowledge why people hate her kind and understands Gideon’s perspective. This understanding allows Rune to not only forgive Gideon for his actions after discovering she’s the Crimson Moth but also forgive herself for her involvement in Nan’s death.
