Spells for Forgetting

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2022

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-12

Chapters 13-24

Chapters 25-37

Chapters 38-48

Chapters 49-60

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Themes

The Influence of Ancestral Heritage

The major guiding theme of Spells for Forgetting is the various family legacies that each of the central characters manages throughout the story, both as a source of strength and as a burden. This duality of legacy reflects the characters’ internal struggles between embracing and resisting their inherited roles. One example of ancestral heritage presented in a positive light is the magic passed through the Saoirse Island women. Emery is introduced to her family’s magic from an early age, studying spell craft with her grandmother and Lily. The magic is both sacred and mundane, deeply woven into everyday life, illustrating how traditions can be cherished and normalized simultaneously. The heart of this ancestral heritage is embodied in the Blackwood book of spells, a physical manifestation of the voices of all the Blackwood women who have gone before, emphasizing the continuity of their power across generations. Albertine’s commitment to protecting her ancestral legacy is evident when she binds Leoda’s power, ensuring that it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. Albertine’s act of binding demonstrates how heritage can be preserved through sacrifice and protection.

August’s connection to his ancestral heritage is more complex, as it is forced upon him, highlighting the tension between inheritance and autonomy. His family is characterized by their social elevation through their orchard, as well as their history of violence, showing how legacies can also be tainted by violence and power struggles. The Salt family’s reputation for power is built on exploitation, and this is most clearly embodied in Henry, who uses his position to control the community. He and his son both abused those weaker than themselves to maintain power. Henry values his family ancestry and name: Rather than passing the orchard to someone who would love it and care for it, he insists on entrapping August, who loathes the land. This decision reveals the way legacies can act as chains, tying descendants to their past even against their will.

A character who shares these views in a conflicting way is Leoda. She is obsessively loyal to her own family’s legacy, and this loyalty pushes her to commit horrible acts. Leoda is driven by a local legend about her ancestors planting the orchard’s first trees and thereby rooting themselves into the land. Her fixation on restoring her family’s name to the orchard reflects the destructive power of unchecked ambition. Every choice that Leoda makes throughout the novel is in pursuit of her mission to restore her ancestral heritage to her family. Her story illustrates the darker side of legacy—how pride in one’s heritage can turn into a consuming obsession that ultimately causes harm. In the end, Emery passes her magical legacy to her children, suggesting that while the burden of ancestry can be heavy, it also offers opportunities for growth and continuity. Each of these characters—Emery, Lily, Albertine, Leoda, and August—is inextricably connected to the strengths, weaknesses, and choices of their ancestors.

Community as a Source of Pressure and Support

As a community isolated from the mainland, Saoirse Island has developed its own strict social hierarchy and norms, which both bind and protect its inhabitants. Everyone has their place in the community and certain unspoken rules that they’re expected to follow. This sense of expectation and surveillance creates a social order where appearances are heavily scrutinized and deviations are judged. This is made clear when Emery goes to the post office and the receptionist remarks on her absence at the tearoom: “It sounded like a question. No one missed a thing on this island, and every shopkeeper on Main Street has probably spent the morning speculating as to why I wasn’t in the tea shop” (74). Emery’s ability to navigate these unspoken social rules highlights her deep understanding of the island’s social and political landscape.

Even as everyone is expected to take on a certain role, governed largely by their ancestral heritage, community also takes on a positive role, as everyone looks out for their friends and neighbors. When August’s father, Calvin, began abusing his mother, Eloise’s friends took action. When violent warnings weren’t enough, the men of the island killed Calvin and made it look like he abandoned his family. This illustrates how when a beloved friend is in danger, the community can rely on each other to come to their aid. However, it also suggests that the community’s willingness to protect its own can sometimes lead to moral compromise as the line between justice and vengeance blurs. This spirit of solidarity later becomes twisted as Leoda and Noah see different paths forward at the climax of the novel. Each believes that they’re doing what’s best for the island—Leoda believes that the right thing to do is to restore the orchard to the Morgan family and rid the island of the Salts, while Noah believes that the right thing to do is preserve the humanity of the island’s people. This division in values highlights the fragile balance between tradition and progress, as well as the danger of prioritizing power over community well-being.

The unbalanced dynamic between August and Dutch, especially in their youth, also illustrates the prevalence of perceived social order. They are born into wildly different circumstances and social classes, and each feels the weight of those class expectations: “He would gladly trade places with me and vice versa” (152). It’s not until their community is shaken by tragedy that each is able to escape the path that was set for them.

The Power of Love and Obsession

Although there are elements of the fantasy and mystery/thriller genres in Spells for Forgetting, there are very strong overtones of romance and interpersonal exploration. At its core, the novel explores how love—both romantic and platonic—can shape, consume, and even destroy individuals and communities. The story is largely driven by the romance between Emery and August, which becomes unrelentingly rooted within them. They first fall in love when they’re only teenagers; both later acknowledge that they were unprepared for the intensity of such a mature connection. Emery augments this with her ritualistic act of devotion under the blood moon. Later, when she goes to Albertine for help removing her bond, Albertine reflects that “[Emery] wouldn’t just lose August, she would lose a part of herself” (217). Their bond has become embedded so deeply that their essence has been tangled together. This connection highlights the novel’s focus on love as a powerful force that can both heal and entrap, suggesting that the deepest loves often come with a price.

This pure, powerful love is juxtaposed against the toxic, obsessive love displayed by Dutch and Lily. Although Dutch does care about Emery, his relationship with her is in part a display of status—managing the orchard and dating Emery show the community that he’s “made it” in life. His love for Emery is more about controlling his future and appearance than about true emotional intimacy, a pattern that mirrors the way that power dynamics shape relationships throughout the novel. Lily’s attraction to August is less Machiavellian and more visceral; she is deeply in love with him, although this love comes from a more artificial and unhealthier place. It is the sort of obsessive first love displayed by young people with a limited worldview who don’t yet fully understand what real love feels like. Her obsession with him leads to the erosion of her friendship with Emery, a shallow relationship with Dutch, and finally an attempted murder. It’s her single-mindedness that makes her a malleable target for Leoda’s equally single-minded rage. Lily’s fate serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of letting love—or the illusion of love—consume one’s sense of identity and morality.

Another romantic thread hinted at in the novel is Jakob’s unrequited love for Eloise. It’s never explained exactly why they didn’t end up together—though it’s implied that no one else really knows why either—but he remained devoted to her all her life. His quiet, enduring love stands in stark contrast to the passionate and often destructive relationships elsewhere in the story, showing that love can take many forms. Though his love is silent and hidden, in contrast to Lily’s obsessive passion, it does influence the choices he makes across his journey. At the novel’s climax, when he attempts to murder August, it represents a complete abandonment of his own humanity.