In the world of Lightlark, beauty is dangerous. The novel’s descriptions of Isla and the Wildling people model this attitude. The Wildlings are preternaturally beautiful, but their beauty is used to lure victims whose hearts they will eat. This earns their entire realm hatred, a reputation that Isla has to contend with in her performance at the Centennial. People from other realms believe that Isla is “a temptress. A monster who subsist[s] on the hearts of easily seduced prey” (68). For the first half of the novel, she plays into that assumption by wearing gorgeous, revealing gowns as “armor,” thinking that if people misjudge her, she can avoid their noticing what she’s really doing. In this way, Isla’s beauty is a weapon, but employed differently than the other rulers suspect and her guardians intend.

Isla, in turn, puts herself at risk through her own attraction to the beauty of others. When she meets Grim, she is suspicious of his extraordinary good looks. His hair is “ink across a page” and his eyes “so dark they seem[] endless” (36), and the first time they touch, she feels a “chill that lick[s] her spine like night blossoming in her bones” (102).