Communication/Motif

Golden, the novel, employs a variety of both human and fantastical beings. As such, the characters must learn how to communicate in several ways, including verbal conversations, the written word, and nonverbal forms. Thus, communication serves as a motif that drives the storyline.

The characters who use traditional, verbal dialogue converse in the normal way, though some of these conversations include jargon that they understand because of shared history and experiences. The narrator is a woman named Cin who is a werewolf living in a bookstore owned by a vampire. Her coworker is a ghoul named Denna, and her roommates are also shape shifters. Even some of the human characters are aware of the supernatural world. These characters discuss it openly in conversations that include Cin's brutal past at the hands of her werewolf pack.

Cin is put under a curse that relegates her to...