The Heroine's Journey: An Overview of Gail Carriger's Approach
Working Title: Carriger's in-depth study of ancient goddess narratives can be applied to your romantasy novel with resounding success! See this plot beat sheet come to life in ACOTAR 💖✨💖✨💖
As 2024 comes to a close, romantasy is more popular than ever. Romance and fantasy readers are picking up romantasy titles because of the hype, but they are sticking around to read beyond Fourth Wing and ACOTAR.
Why? My personal opinion is that there a huge audience out there wanting stories that speak to them on a soul level. Yes, we joke that we like to read smut. And certainly, the steamy pages are a romp. But in all seriousness, I believe romantasy’s true appeal lies in the fact that these stories are rooted in our ancient past, harkening back to the days when the sacred feminine was revered. Once upon a time we understood we were a part of nature, and a life well-lived meant providing for the collective rather than having one’s name live on in legend or myth.
Romantasy stories provide that in spades.
These fresh story beats—those used to celebrate the compassion and curosity of women—are achieved in romantasy by utulizing an underlying structure called the Heroine’s Journey. This mythic structure of story harkens back to the forgotten tales of the goddesses that were once highly revered in the Ancient Near East and Ancient Greece.
In this post, I will focus on Gail Carriger’s interpretation of the Heroine’s Journey. Beforehand, I would like to underscore this post focuses on story structure, specifically applied to the external plot beats (versus the internal arc of change). Also note that heroines can be both biologically male or female. (See Carriger’s examination of Harry Potter for a full discussion).
The Heroine’s Journey: An Introduction
Gail Carriger experly explains how myths and archetypal stories featuring a Heroine’s Journey can be broken down into three rites of passage:
The Descent: the heroine finds herself spiraling downwards. This is oftentimes caused by a broken family. The heroine’s pleas for help are ignored and she abdicates her powers and/or defined social role. Things get worse, and she is forced to withdraw from the broken family unit. Her family offers aid but no actual solutions to the problems at hand.
The Search: the loss of the heroine’s family leads to isolation and/or risk to her safety and health. The heroine employes disguise or subversion and alters her identity. She forms a found family and visits the underworld. At this time she is assisted by the found family and/or new associates.
The Ascent: the heroine rises above her trials, and her successful search results in a new or reborn family network. Compromise and negotiation are valued over seeking glory or vengeance. Balance and civilization restored to all.
This infographic presents the main plot points of the Heroine’s Journey in an easy to understand format (and is used with permission from the author). You don’t need to include every single one of these plot points within the descent, search, and ascent. But certain elements, especially the abdication of defined social roles (especially when that role requires you to shun your sexuality), and the inclusion of a found family work espeically well in romantasy.
I highly encourage you to purchase this book if you are a writer. Carriger’s examination of the myths of the Sumerian goddess Inanna, the Egyptian goddess Isis, and the Greek goddess Demeter illustrates powerful heroines have always been a part of our cultural history, and their stories still resonate within our hearts today. Carriger’s book is written with her trademark wit, making it an enjoyable read.
The Heroine’s Journey Plot Beats in ACOTAR
Plot beats are important, but also dry as stale gluten-free bread until you have an actual story to examine. For the rest of this article, I’m going to explain how A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas is a classic iteration of the Heroine’s Journey.
For those of you who are not writers and do not want to know the recipe for the secret sauce behind ACOTAR’s external plot beats, go ahead and skip this part.
The Descent:
Broken Family Network: The story opens with Feyre Archeron hunting in the woods to feed her father and sisters. The family has fallen on hard times. The majority of the burden of their survival has fallen to Feyre, who is honoring a deathbed wish to her mother to care for the family.
Pleas Ignored: Feyre asks for help with the household chores from her sisters, but Nesta is loathe to chop wood, and Elayne is rather dim-witted. Dad generally comes across as in a depressive state and refuses to take charge of the family. Despite being the youngest, Feyre shoulders the burden alone.
Abdication of Power and/or Defined Social role: In ACOTAR, Feyre does not abdicate her power as seen in the goddess myths of old. She does, however, break an important social convention expected of all humans in this world. Do NOT kill a fairy. EVER. She knows this! And yet, when she observes a massive wolf that could possibly be a fairy, her hate overrides her sense. She kills it with an ash arrow.
Involuntary Withdrawal: Feyre’s instincts about the wolf were correct. It was a fairy in animal form. A monstrous beast then descends upon their cottage in the woods and makes a demand: a life for a life. The beast gives Feyre a choice: I can kill you now, or you can come with me to the fairy lands of Prythian to live out the remainder of your days. Of course she goes with him, all the while vowing to figure out how to escape and return home.
***Note that not all the plot beats are present in ACOTAR. The family does not offer aid during the descent portion of the story.
The Search:
Isolation and Danger: The isolation portion of the story begins with Feyre feeling afraid and completely out of sorts in the fairy land of Prythian. She is the only human in this land of creatures and is frightened in the face of their magical powers.
Disguise and/or Subversion: Feyre spends her initial time at the Spring Court trying to subvert the terms of the agreement with Tamlin, the fae who can shift into the form of a beast with talons and massive ram’s horns. She steals dinner knives, and at one point sneaks away when she thinks her father has come to rescue her.
Information Gathering: At the height of her subversion, Feyre summons a truthtelling creature called the Suriel. She asks how she can break the agreement with Tamlin and go home. To her dismay, she is told that is impossible, and that she must stay with the High Lord.
Formation of Found Family: Feyre is saved from the Naga by Tamlin. Being a Beauty and the Beast retelling as well as a Heroine’s Journey, she begins to fall in love with her captor. She also befriends other faeries including Tamlin’s emissary Lucien and her maid servant Alis. She comes to appreciate her time painting at the Spring Court despite the blight that is affecting the borders of Tam’s lands.
Danger, Part Deux: When Feyre sneaks out to witness the Fire Night ceremony, she is nearly raped by three deviant faeries. (Thank goodness she is saved by the most gorgeous man she has ever seen, and its NOT Tamlin). Later on, she nearly has her mind shattered by that same raven-haired hottie, Rhysand, who is revealed to be the dangerous High Lord of the Night Court.
Isolation, Part Deux: Afraid that Rhysand will report Feyre’s existance to the most deadly and dangerous faery in all the land, Tamlin sends Feyre back home, isolating her from her found family to keep her safe. She does not want to leave.
Informaton Gathering, Part Deux: Feyre decides to return to Prythian despite being told not to, and she discovers the Spring Court in shambles. Alis is amid the wreckage, foraging for any useful supplies. Angry at Feyre and her stupid human heart, Alis spills the tea. Feyre learns the blight is actually an evil queen who has stolen all of the High Lords’ power. She is keeping Tamlin as her slave. Had Feyre only said she loved him, this fate would not have befallen the Spring Court.
Visit to the Underworld: Amarantha, the High Fae Queen, rules from her court beneath the mountain. Feyre ventures there in an effort to save Tamlin. She is captured and beaten. Instead of killng Feyre outright, Amarantha tells Feyre she must complete three tasks or answer a riddle. Only then will Tamlin and all of Prythian be saved.
Aided by Companions: Being human, the tasks given to Feyre should have killed her. But she is aided by a number of fae along the way. In the maze with the Midgard worm, Lucien cries out a warning that allows her to escape its maw. When her arm is festering and Feyre is near death, Rhysand appears and heals her (for the price of her spending a week in his company for the rest of her life). This gives her hope—if Rhys thinks she can fulfill the bargain, he must think she can live. He helps her cheat on another task. Feyre realizes that Tamlin himself had allowed her to eavsdrop during her stay at the Spring Court, giving her the infomation she needed to successfully complete the final task.
The Ascent:
Negotiation for Reunification: Being an evil queen, Amarantha goes back on her word. Feyre dies. Her disembodied soul sees through Rhysand’s eyes as Tamlin embodies the role of the traditional hero. Now freed from the curse that took his power, he assumes his beast form and rips out the queen’s throat. However, the High Lords present all realize they are free, and the first thing they do is they come together—they are reunified—in their desire to bestow a gift upon Feyre. Each Lord drops a golden substance from their hand.
Reunion: The golden magic restores Feyre to life. Not only that, she has literally ascended from human to high fae. She and Tamlin spend a night making love beneath the mountain. She also speaks to Rhysand one more time, noting he acts a bit odd, before returning to the Spring Court.
Network Rebuilt: The High Lords speak on how to return Prythian to its traditonal means of rule. Feyre is not necessarily interested in this aspect of the Heroine’s Journey, as her trials have left her emotionally scarred. Note what she does NOT do however. Feyre does not demand revenge for Lucien’s ass-hat brothers that taunted her during her trials. She does not revel in the vulgar display of Amarantha’s corpse in the throne room. She does not insist the faeries that hate humans be punished. The fact that order is restored is the point of her journey.
Final Thoughts:
As noted above, Carriger’s application of the Heroine’s Journey focuses on plot beats. In using ACOTAR to illustrate this, I did not examine Feyre’s arc of change. That is not what Carriger is teaching, and also, Feyre’s internal heroine’s journey goes beyond the first book. While she was able to move past the hate in her heart for the fae, she still has much to learn about her people pleasing tendencies that are a result of her early childhood trauma.
As you can see, however, this is a wonderful structure for writers looking to create stories that focus on the power of women AND have a happily-ever-after. Isn’t that what every romantasy reader truly desires?
Are you familar with the Heroine’s Journey? Do you use it in your own writing, or do you now see it reflected in one of your favorite books? Let me know in the comments!
Carriger's analysis of the Heroine's Journey is so helpful, which goes to say I was SO excited to see you cover it! Perfect for the romantasy genre too
Wow I love the Heroine's Journey! Thanks for sharing and showing this with Feyre too. I was actually thinking of Aelin from Throne of Glass, haha. Same principles! You know, this reminds me of something I learned in my psych courses. It said that with men, there's the stereotypical story of rising to the top and achieving success, which is fine. But with women, their stories weren't as linear and could be more circular (or spiralling?) in some cases, because relationships are a big thing, not just career success/ prowess. And as you know, relationships aren't linear.
Of course, men can also have narratives with relationships, so I don't think we should restrict it to the person's gender. But we're talking about social norms and beliefs, not about the individuals. I like how the Heroine's Journey here has a lot of focus on relationships. Family, found family and friends, the community and the people, etc. Rather than rivals/ enemies, allies, mentors, etc. that you typically find in a hero's journey. (Well the hero's journey is technically for any gender, not just male, but again, we're talking about gender role expectations, not literal individuals.)
I'm also nonbinary, used to be read as female and now read as male. So I have interesting feelings about the different gender narratives with hero's vs heroine's journey, haha. And as you know, my protagonist is also nonbinary. But in contrast to me, they were read as male before and now sometimes read as female by readers (but still misgendered in many ways.) But the point is that our gender identities don't fit neatly anywhere haha. I think I can see both the hero's and the heroine's journey in Anastasia. We can talk more in our next session! This is a fascinating topic. Thanks for writing this, Ivy!