The Ballad of Never After

Chapter 47’s title presents irony because it is not the end of the story, and this irony establishes the structural flourish at this point in the novel that entrenches the reader in the magic by taking them from one ending to another alternative. The title also has a diegetic function since it is a symbol of the way stories function in the North. The North’s magic twists stories so that they must be retold a certain way, and the use of “the end” marks this moment as the end of this tale. Again, Garber employs metafictional devices with her explicit reference to endings. This time, Jacks becomes a proxy for the reader in his investment in the way the narrative ends. He refuses to accept the first ending, and he gives up his chance for love with Donatella to bring Evangeline back to life. After doing so, however, Jacks acts cruelly toward Evangeline. The romantic arc is not resolved, however, but left in suspense to make the reader anticipate the next installment in the series. Evangeline echoes Jacks’s metafictional desire to control the story when she says that she wishes their story “could have had another ending” (347).

The second set of Chapters 44-46 generates dramatic irony as the narration follows Evangeline. She notices that the stones are duller, which is a hint that they’ve already been used to reverse time, something for which they can only be used once. At the end of Chapter 45, when she wishes that she and Jacks could have a different ending, the reader knows that they did have another ending that was even worse than this one. Garber hence creates layers of knowledge through these chapters: What Jacks knows, what Evangeline knows, and what the reader knows is all different. This engages the reader to the very end of the novel since it draws attention to the threads of plot that need resolving.

Chaos’s prediction that time will take something from Jacks comes to pass in these repeated chapters; in Chapter 47, Jacks noted that there is nothing of equal value to him as Evangeline. Together, these statements foreshadow that Jacks will lose Evangeline again to fulfill time’s requirements. However, in the Epilogue, Evangeline is still alive, suggesting there is a chance for her to regain her memories of Jacks and find her happy ending with him. The fact that multiple plotlines are hence left unresolved leaves the reader in suspense and draws attention to the macro-structural elements of the series. This book, while exhibiting internal structural elements such as exposition and climax, forms a wider function of rising action for the series as a whole, for which the climax will occur in a subsequent book.

These unresolved threads are also epitomized by the action surrounding Apollo. No explanation is given for Apollo taking Evangeline’s memories, for example, or for his ability to take memories away. Apollo tells her that the archer curse has been broken, but Evangeline has no proof of this. Back in Chapter 11, Apollo said that if Evangeline breaks the curse, he would only protect her, and his actions here may be his way of making good on this promise. Garber uses Evangeline’s emotional state to provide suspenseful foreshadowing: Despite not recalling events, Evangeline’s emotions tell her that something is wrong, suggesting that she will find out that Apollo is dangerous in the sequel. Apollo’s final words, as well as his tampering with Evangeline’s memory, speak to the theme of Manipulation: His statement “I’m never going to let you go” is both a promise and a threat (356).