Danger

Danger is one of the major themes to emerge in Evans’ collection, and has a prominent place in the first two stories, “Happily Ever After” (1) and “Richard of York Gave Battle in Vain” (18). In both of these stories, the protagonists are struggling to live their lives after unexpected losses: In “Happily Ever After,” Lyssa’s mother has died of ovarian cancer, and in “Richard of York Gave Battle in Vain,” Rena’s sister was shot by her husband and lost some cognitive abilities. Both women seem to have adopted the idea that danger is not worth hiding from: While Lyssa puts off having her ovaries removed because she already feels cheated “out of a mother, out of a textbook diagnosis where they could have lifted the bad thing out of her mother and sent her home to recover” (8), Rena makes a point of actively putting herself...