Rebel Witch

Kristen CiccarelliFiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2025

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapters 1-15

Part 1, Chapters 16-29

Part 2, Chapters 30-41

Part 2, Chapters 42-52

Part 3, Chapters 53-65

Part 3, Chapter 66-Epilogue

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Book Club Questions

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

Ghost Walker

Rune’s invisibility spell, Ghost Walker, is a motif that thematically aligns with The Critical Role of Identity. This spell, which Rune uses most often and is a spell she personally created, enables her to survive by evading notice, much like how her role-playing of different personas—socialite, spoiled aristocrat, or grand seductress—helps her evade notice as a witch and the Crimson Moth. However, in Rebel Witch, Rune begins to struggle with her identity. She often wonders who she really is, and her recurring use of the Ghost Walker spell highlights this struggle. She’s so used to disappearing into various roles to survive that she loses sight of her identity beneath them all.

In most instances when she uses the Ghost Walker spell, the text points out the crimson moth signature floating above. Chapter 25 notes “a crimson signature […] in the air next to her head, the only trace of her Ghost Walker spell” (149). This is a reminder that no matter how much Rune loses herself to the roles she must play to survive, a trace of her will always linger to lead her back to herself.

Scars

The novel’s use of scars symbolizes the similarities among all people, whether witches or non-witches. While the non-witch community identifies witches through their casting scars and therefore brands them as monsters, non-witches (like Gideon, Bart, and Harrow) have their own scars, both physical and emotional.

Formerly, Gideon regarded witches’ scars with disgust, recalling his past with Cressida and his service as a witch-hunter for the Republic. While he still regards Cressida’s casting scars this way, he views Rune’s as beautiful. Her delicate leg scars form “a pattern of moths in flight,” and though he wants to hate them, he instead has “the strangest urge to take her leg in his hands and trace the silver lines. Memorize them with his fingers” (113). Many times throughout the novel, Gideon compares Cressida’s brand of magic to Rune’s. While Cressida seeks to control through force, Rune is gentle in her use of magic. Cressida’s scars represent her greedy pursuit of power; Rune’s represent what she endured to survive and pursue freedom.

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This symbolism continues in the scars that Rune incurs from Cressida’s lashings. When Gideon asks Harrow about the scar where her ear is missing, she tells him the story of the cruelty she endured at the hands of witches, adding, “We all have our scars, Comrade […] But I don’t have to tell you that, do I?” (237). Gideon’s brand from Cressida—the rose and moon scar on his chest—illustrates the truth of Harrow’s words. While casting scars inflicted willingly on oneself differ from the physical and emotional scars inflicted by others, these scenes reveal that no matter their background or identity, everyone bears scars.

Once viewed as symbolizing the primary, irreconcilable differences between witches and non-witches, these scars eventually become something to share and celebrate. This is evident in the Epilogue’s revelation that, instead of wedding bands, Gideon and Rune chose matching casting scars encircling their ring fingers to remind them of their lifelong promises to each other.

Kestrels

Throughout the novel, kestrels symbolize guidance and liberation. Rune’s grandmother, Kestrel Winters, was a guiding figure in her early life. Her last words of advice to Rune were to find Seraphine, who she knew would help guide Rune through the conflict to come. In Chapter 10, Rune notices Seraphine rubbing her fingers on the scars at the base of her neck, and Rune knows this this means “she was concentrating hard on something” (65). She later reveals that Seraphine’s casting scars depict “the same bird as in Rune’s grandmother’s seal. The one Nan used to stamp her letters with” (65): a kestrel. In the novel’s climax, Seraphine reveals that she’s an Ancient—specifically, Wisdom. Thus, Seraphine not only guided Rune since her grandmother’s death but is the godly embodiment of this practice. Seraphine is trapped in the earthly realm until she rights a wrong from long ago—a task that requires liberating both peoples, Republic and witches, from their cycles of oppression.

When aboard the Arcadia, Rune chooses the name Kestrel as her undercover identity. Before leaving on her journey, she notes, “[S]he was free to be who she wanted. There was no one holding her back” (65). Rune’s decision to embody the persona of Kestrel Sharpe on the ship evokes the kestrel’s symbolism surrounding liberation because she seeks to save not only witches but non-witches too by preventing Cressida from resurrecting her sisters and seizing power.