52 pages • 1 hour read
Scarlett St. ClairA Touch of Ruin
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2020A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 1, Chapters 1-5Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 1, Chapter 1 Summary: “A Touch of Doubt”
Persephone Rosi is in the Underworld, a dark, mountainous realm, walking along the River Styx with a companion, a soul named Yuri. She recalls how she once drowned in the river, dragged down by the souls of the dead that floated within it, but Hades rescued her and healed her wounds. He challenged her to grow something in his garden, a bargain that led to them falling in love.
Persephone sees newly arrived souls and greets them, moved by their fear about entering the Underworld. She realizes that the Underworld’s reputation has changed since antiquity. At Yuri’s suggestion, Persephone shows her divine form, though she is still learning to control her magic. Though they are back together after a recent breakup, Persephone feels uncertain about her relationship with Hades and is jealous about his past lovers, one of whom, his assistant Minthe, she turned into a mint plant.
Persephone makes decisions about the upcoming solstice celebrations and then reads in the library, where Hades appears. He doesn’t like that she is having doubts about their relationship. Persephone asks if he would still want her if the Fates hadn’t decreed that they would be together. He begins to make love to her in the lavish dining room after dismissing his servants. He is suddenly called away to attend to a matter of concern, but he won’t say what it is.
Part 1, Chapter 2 Summary: “A Touch of Duplicity”
Persephone visits Hecate, the Goddess of Witchcraft. Hecate is teaching Persephone to control her magic by first controlling her emotions. Persephone admits, “She wanted control over everything—her magic, her life, her future” (27). Hecate tries to get her to meditate, but Persephone only has erotic visions of Hades.
The next day, Hades’ driver, a cyclops named Antoni, takes Persephone to work. She is a journalist writing for the New Athens News. Her best friend, Lexa Sideris, sends links to articles enthusing about Hades’ new lover; their romance is front-page news. Lexa works at the Cypress Foundation, a nonprofit that Hades runs. There is a crowd waiting for Persephone outside her office building, but Hermes helps escort her inside. Antoni says that Hades could give her an aegis for protection, but Persephone wants independence; she spent 18 years of her life imprisoned by her mother in a glass house. She also wants to maintain her façade as a mortal while in the Upperworld. Persephone is greeted by her beautiful receptionist, Helen. Her boss, Demetri, tells her that their CEO, Kal Stavros, demands that she write an exclusive for the paper about her relationship with Hades. She’ll be fired if she doesn’t.
Persephone thinks about telling Hades about this demand. She knows that he will be angry, and she doesn’t want him to fight her battles for her. She opens her mail, which is full of cut-out paper hearts. Then, when she is looking for a way to exit the building unseen, a janitor offers to help her.
Part 1, Chapter 3 Summary: “A Touch of Injustice”
The janitor smuggles Persephone outside in a cart full of garbage. He says his name is Pirithous. Persephone goes to her apartment and finds her roommate, Lexa, waiting for her. They sip wine, and Persephone asks about Lexa’s role in the Halcyon Project, an initiative Hades began to help people struggling with addiction. Lexa says that she can see how Hades is inspired by Persephone. Persephone tries to explain that she wants to be known for her work, not her divinity or who she is dating.
As she runs a shower, Hades appears in her bedroom. Persephone tells him that she doesn’t want an aegis, but he warns her that someone with a vendetta against him might try to hurt her. She is uncomfortable with being called his lover or girlfriend. She and Lexa watch a movie called Pyramus and Thisbe. Their friend Sybil knocks on the door, and Persephone can sense her distress. Sybil reveals that she’s not an oracle anymore; Apollo fired her and took away her prophetic powers when she refused to become his lover.
Persephone is furious on her behalf, but Sybil asks her not to write about Apollo. Sybil reminds her that the gods punish, and their usual means is to hurt those a person cares for most. Persephone says she will talk to Hades. The girls briefly discuss protests by the Impious, a group of mortals who reject the gods. Sybil tries to extract a promise that Persephone won’t pursue revenge against Apollo, but Persephone knows that when a god makes a promise, it is supposed to be unbreakable.
Part 1, Chapter 4 Summary: “A Touch of Warning”
Awake while her friends sleep, Persephone thinks about the article she’s being forced to write. She doesn’t want to share her personal life, but she also doesn’t want to lose her job. She teleports to the Underworld and climbs into bed with Hades, asking to discuss Apollo. Hades is upset by the topic of conversation and tells Persephone that she cannot write about the god. Hades advises Persephone to find justice in other ways; he cannot protect her from another god. He also tells her that she cannot rescue mortals from the punishment of the gods. They have sex, but Persephone is left wondering why Hades is so angry about her mentioning Apollo.
Part 1, Chapter 5 Summary: “Royal Treatment”
Persephone and Lexa have lunch at the Yellow Daffodil. Persephone is angry at the thought that Apollo’s victims could be ignored because he is the popular and adored god of healing and music. She sees green vines sprouting from her shoulder and realizes that her magic is manifesting. When she tears off the vines, she bleeds. Lexa wonders if all the gods are vengeful and punishing. Persephone is approached by someone asking if she is Hades’ girlfriend, who then takes a picture without Persephone’s permission.
Lexa takes Persephone to her building to give her a tour of the Cypress Foundation, but the nymph at the desk panics because she was not warned that Persephone would visit. Persephone gives her time to prepare and is then treated like a first-class guest. The director herself leads the tour and describes Hades’ many charitable projects, from running animal shelters to providing therapy dogs. Persephone didn’t know about any of them. She peeks into Hades’ office and sees a picture of her on his desk.
Hades appears in his office, and Persephone asks if he’s been watching her while being invisible. She is upset about how much she still doesn’t know about her lover. Also, the tour has made her realize that she might not be able to live as she once did. Back at her office, someone has sent her a white rose. Persephone researches Apollo’s lovers and learns about how many women he’s harmed. Demetri follows up to remind her about the article and tells her that the one power journalism can’t fight is money.
Part 1, Chapters 1-5 Analysis
This section introduces some of the backstory from the first book, including how Hades and Persephone met and came to be together (hinting at the involvement of the Fates in their union), her article decrying his bargains with mortals, and some of the early obstacles in their relationship. In this book, as the relationship develops, tension emerges around how much Persephone doesn’t know about her lover. Further tension arises from her discomfort with being defined as his consort. In keeping with the prevailing themes of new adult and coming-of-age novels, Persephone has goals of independence and self-sufficiency, supporting herself and making a name for herself through her work. Her goals are in direct opposition to the way Hades wants to provide for her, protect her, and make her his queen. While Persephone is growing more comfortable in the Underworld, which so far exists as a kind of magical setting and alternative reality to the Upperworld, she still doesn’t see herself as Hades’ partner, in part because of their imbalance of power.
In addition to trying to preserve her career, which is on the line if she doesn’t write the exclusive for her boss, Persephone is coming to terms with her Identity, Talent, and Influence as a goddess—a popular theme of the new adult and coming-of-age genres. Part of her quest involves learning to handle her magic, which manifests in growing things, but at the moment, her power is dangerous, unpredictable, and also painful, indicating her inexperience. Her efforts may also be frustrated because Persephone isn’t ready to claim or manifest her divine identity in the Upperworld; she wants to continue with her façade as a mortal woman, indicating her current state of inexperience and lack of confidence in her powers.
This section introduces the theme of Celebrity and Its Costs, evidenced by the attention Persephone draws when touring the foundation. St. Clair also looks at the dark side of celebrity power through the relationship between Sybil and Apollo. Sybil has been victimized by her more powerful lover, and the young women realize that, even if they speak up, he isn’t likely to be punished. His popularity and his adoring fans will insulate him from being held accountable for his actions. St. Clair’s Olympians are metaphors for the rich and powerful, and the novel examines the influence of those whose wealth, celebrity, or social power protects them from the law or even common courtesy—a thinly veiled allegory for the way wealth and status work in the real world.
Another ambitious and optimistic young woman hoping to do good in the world through her work is Persephone’s best friend, Lexa, who is a foil and companion to Persephone. Sybil, a young woman with a special gift and a powerful and capricious lover, is also another foil for Persephone. Sybil shows Persephone what could happen to her if Hades lacked a sense of fairness. Hades is also an extremely wealthy, powerful man, a trope borrowed from the billionaire romance subgenre, and he could inflict the same kind of damage if he didn’t have a certain moral code or the wish—inspired by Persephone—to help mortals.
Persephone’s need to see justice done comes into conflict with what Lexa describes as the character of the gods, who, focused on power and influence, protect their reputations through punishment and revenge. Persephone wants to be different, but she will discover a vein of less noble emotion within herself, and she must acknowledge her own undercurrent of darkness. Suspense around the unidentified admirer and the janitor Pirithous and foreshadowing for the solstice celebrations emerge. Hecate is introduced as a wise mentor and mother figure, the kind of goddess Persephone could become.
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By Scarlett St. Clair
