From Blood and Ash

Reading Check and Short Answer Questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

CHAPTERS 1-5

Reading Check

1. Which faction supports Prince Casteel?

2. Who is Penellaphe’s maid and confidante?

3. What sound interrupts Lord Mazeen’s attempted assault of Penellaphe?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What is Penellaphe’s motivation for going to the Red Pearl?

2. What is Penellaphe’s special power, and what does it allow her to understand about Hawke?

3. In what supposedly treasonous activity do Penellaphe and Vikter engage?

Paired Resource

“The Type”

• This 4-minute video features spoken-word poet Sarah Kay performing her poem “The Type,” a work about women reclaiming their subjectivity.
• This resource relates to the themes of Self-Exploration and Character Growth and Religion as a Means for Control.
• What point is Kay making about how women often think about themselves in a patriarchal society? What evidence do you see that Penellaphe yearns for more agency in her own life? What forces in her society work toward making her more object than subject? How does her status as “Maiden” relate to both gender and class roles in her society?

CHAPTERS 6-13

Reading Check

1. What does Penellaphe decide must be true about the one responsible for Malessa Axton’s death?

2. Which couple pleads with the Duke and Duchess to be excused from giving up their child to the Rite?

3. What does the Duke believe makes Penellaphe self-conscious about removing her veil?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. How did the Queen’s affection for Penellaphe’s mother indirectly make Penellaphe’s birth possible?

2. When the Duke summons Penellaphe to discuss Rylan’s replacement, how does he demonstrate his own low regard for the fallen Royal Guard?

3. How does Penellaphe react toward the Duke when he summons her to talk about her misbehavior?

Paired Resource

“The Masque of the Red Death”

• This classic short story by Edgar Allan Poe recounts Prince Prospero’s efforts to use his wealth and power to escape death.
• This resource relates to the theme of The Equalizing Nature of Death.
• What does the figure of the “Red Death” represent? Why does Prospero think he can escape the disease laying waste to his country? What is the moral of this story? In what ways are the people around Penellaphe similar to the revelers at Prospero’s party? What hints are there that they are not as safe as they believe themselves to be?

CHAPTERS 14-20

Reading Check

1. What does Penellaphe see that causes her to don her fighting gear and rush outside?

2. What did Penellaphe survive that no one else seems to have ever survived?

3. Whom does the Duchess say killed the first Maiden?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What does encountering Penellaphe on the battlefield provoke Hawke to say about her?

2. What is the implication of the comment the blond man shouts before throwing the Craven hand at the Duke and Duchess?

3. What comparison does Penellaphe make that greatly angers Priestess Analia?

Paired Resource

“Religion Is an Ex I’m Still Trying to Leave Behind”

• This essay from TIME shares the author’s struggles to find her own identity outside of the extreme fundamentalist religion in which she was raised.
• This resource relates to the themes of Self-Exploration and Character Growth and Religion as a Means for Control.
• What point is this author making about religion and identity? Given this author’s struggles, what predictions can you make about Penellaphe’s future now that she has begun to question some of the teachings of her religion? How does Hawke facilitate Penellaphe’s questioning? Under what circumstances do you think it is right or wrong to prompt a person to ask critical questions about their religious beliefs?

CHAPTERS 21-26

Reading Check

1. What book does Hawke tease Penellaphe about reading?

2. Which tree in the garden is Hawke’s favorite?

3. Whom does Penellaphe kill after Vikter dies?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What does Penellaphe find confusing about what she learns about Lev’s identity and allegiances from the conversation between the Duke and the Royal Guard?

2. When they are passing through the garden, how does Hawke try to help Penellaphe deal with her unhappy memories of the place?

3. What shocking sight does Penellaphe see when she hears screams and rushes into the Great Hall?

Paired Resource

From Ajax: “Dirge” and From Hamlet: “Speech of Worms”

• The first resource, a brief and accessible James Shirley poem, is sometimes referred to as “Death the Leveller,” and is an excerpt from Shirley’s 1659 play The Contention of Ajax and Ulysses for the Armour of Achilles.
• The second resource, an excerpt from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, is a speech that the titular character gives upon the death of Polonius.
• These resources relate to the theme of The Equalizing Nature of Death.
• What point is the Shirley poem’s speaker making about status and death? How does the speaker’s depiction of death as a leveler compare to the point that Hamlet is making in this excerpt from Shakespeare’s play? Why do you think this theme is a common one in literature? How do you see this theme manifested in From Blood and Ash?

CHAPTERS 27-34

Reading Check

1. Which friend does Penellaphe fear she will never see again when she leaves for the capital?

2. Who dies defending Penellaphe from the Craven attack in Blood Forest?

3. Who dies trying to get Penellaphe out of the New Haven keep?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. When Penellaphe is not punished for Lord Mazeen’s death, what conclusion does Penellaphe come to about the Duchess’s relationship with the Duke?

2. When Penellaphe and Hawke are sharing a sleeping bag in Blood Forest, what is Penellaphe talking about when she suddenly tastes ash?

3. What clues to the trap in the New Haven keep does Penellaphe notice but not take seriously as her party is arriving there?

CHAPTERS 35-41

Reading Check

1. What word does Hawke use to describe a mortal that an Atlantian has Ascended?

2. After Hawke catches up to Penellaphe following her attempt to stab him in the heart, what does he do after grabbing her wrist?

3. Why does Hawke want to return to Atlantian soil before completing his rescue of his brother? 

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What causes Penellaphe to attack Hawke and Jericho when she is first captured?

2. What causes Penellaphe to attack Hawke after he saves her life by letting her drink his blood?

3. When Penellaphe is imprisoned and being watched over by Kieran following her attempt to kill Hawke, what conclusion does she reach about her own safety?

Recommended Next Reads

A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire by Jennifer L. Armentrout

• The second book in Armentrout’s Blood and Ash series, this novel follows Penellaphe (“Poppy”) and Casteel as Poppy tries to decide whether to work with or against the man she both loves and fears.
• Shared themes include Self-Exploration and Character Growth, Religion as a Means for Control, and The Equalizing Nature of Death.
• Shared topics include dark fantasy, romance, the supernatural, adventure, war, and intrigue.  
• A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire on SuperSummary

The Foxglove King by Hannah Whitten

• This dark fantasy romance is the first book in Whitten’s The Nightshade Crown series and features the coming-of-age story of Lore, a young woman with special abilities that bring her to the attention of a king with a dangerous mission for Lore to undertake.
• Shared themes include Self-Exploration and Character Growth, Religion as a Means for Control, and The Equalizing Nature of Death.
• Shared topics include dark fantasy, romance, coming-of-age, the supernatural, adventure, war, and intrigue.