The novel’s first chapters establish Serafina’s state of alienation and loneliness. She lives sequestered away in a dark basement and is forbidden from interacting with others. She neither knows her mother nor attends school. She tries to connect with other children, but only from afar and through her imagination in pretend games of hide-and-seek. Moreover, her isolation is not only through these physical constraints, but through highly unusual innate characteristics that separate her from others. Her unnaturally flexible physiology, large amber eyes that see in the dark, preternatural hunting abilities—and more—mark her not simply as different but odd. Serafina’s character arc finds definition through several movements, chief among them a movement from isolation to community. By the end of the novel, she crosses this threshold as she befriends Braeden and the Biltmore’s residents discover and welcome her presence.

As a coming-of-age story, the narrative also emphasizes Serafina’s youthful qualities and her incremental maturation—both of which drive the plot. Like many adolescents, Serafina wonders about what life would be like outside of her sphere, and this leads her to explore. She longs to engage the world and challenges misguided authority, and this leads her to pursue the Man in the Black Cloak.