“And if it was indeed a faerie’s heart pounding under that fur, then good riddance. Good riddance, after all their kind had done to us.”

In the very first chapter, Feyre reveals key details about the conflict between faeries and humans. Feyre’s perception of faeries is clearly negative and informed by what she sees as a long history of mistreatment of humans. These first details create suspense and intrigue about what has transpired between the human and faerie races and how it will impact the story’s protagonist. Feyre’s negative thoughts about faeries are revealed in the context of a desperate hunt, implying that the dire conditions Feyre's family live in may be due, in part, to faeries’ influences on the human realm. Feyre’s contemplation also reveals that faeries are powerful and magical and can transform themselves into wolves and possibly other creatures, which sets the stage for a fantastical story to unfold. Most importantly, Feyre’s thoughts reveal her personal animosity toward faeries, one of the traits required of the human who can break Amarantha’s curse. Feyre’s animosity is so strong that she spends what little money she has on the only weapon known to kill faeries: an ash arrow. It is her use of this ash arrow on the faerie Andras in wolf form that is the inciting incident for the story, sealing her fate and sending her to Prythian. 

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