By: Isabella Vienna
Writers talk a lot about characters taking on a life of their own. It is a phrase that gets used so often it can start to sound like a cliché. Jacqueline Pennewill has a specific story that makes it feel true again.
Zale, the dark leader of The Fallen in The Book of Eternity, was not designed to be sympathetic. He was not designed to struggle, question, or feel anything resembling tenderness. He was meant to be a villain.
Halfway through the book, he developed a conscience.
Jacqueline describes sitting with that development, resisting it, and ultimately following where it led. She struggled because she did not want his character to go in that direction. But he kept pulling her that way. Eventually, she realized that a Zale who was simply evil was far less interesting than a Zale who had been evil for centuries and then, through proximity to Grey, began to remember who he was before.
What Centuries of Darkness Does to a Being
The backstory Jacqueline developed for Zale is one of the more quietly affecting elements of the novel. He had been evil for so long that he forgot. Not forgot in a casual way. Forgot in the way a person can lose themselves entirely in who they have become and lose all connection to who they were.
When Grey comes along, something shifts. He sees in her the same things he once struggled with himself: grief, uncertainty, and the feeling of being lost. Through her, he is reminded of a version of himself that existed before centuries of darkness buried it.
He loves her. And that emotion begins to unravel everything he has built his existence around, because love asks questions that evil does not have good answers to.
Grey’s Journey Is About Healing, Not Heroism
Jacqueline is specific about what she wanted readers to understand about Grey’s arc. It is not a story about a girl who discovers she is secretly powerful and uses that power to win. It is a story about healing and self-discovery told through extraordinary circumstances.
Grey begins the story grieving, guilty, disconnected, and unsure of who to trust. She has a strained relationship with her mother. She is closed off in the way people can become closed off when they have been hurt by something they could not control.
What makes her relatable, Jacqueline says, is that everything Grey experiences has a version in everyday life. Young people trying to figure out who they are. Dealing with loss. Navigating complicated family relationships. Experiencing first love. The supernatural elements are the frame. The emotional content is the part that lands.
The Scene She Almost Did Not Write
One moment in the book surprised Jacqueline more than any other in terms of reader response. The birthday scene on the floor in Grey’s room was not in the original manuscript. She was not sure it would make it into the final book. It took her somewhere she personally did not want to go.
It stayed. And it has generated positive feedback from young adult readers and adult readers alike. It also opened the door for Grey and her mother’s relationship to evolve in a direction the rest of the book could not have reached without it.
The ending surprised her too. She had no intention of finishing the book the way she finished it. Zale surprised her. The birthday scene surprised her. The ending surprised her.
She followed every one of those surprises. And the book appears stronger because of them.
If you’ve ever rooted for a character who wasn’t supposed to have a heart and developed one anyway, The Book of Eternity by Jacqueline Pennewill is available now on Amazon. Zale is waiting. So is Grey. And neither of them is who you expect.
