Human Rites by Juno Dawson Summary, Characters and Themes
Human Rites by Juno Dawson is the powerful conclusion to her acclaimed witchcraft trilogy. Blending modern politics with age-old magic, the novel follows the witches of Her Majesty’s Royal Coven as they face their greatest trial yet: the rising darkness of Satanis and the apocalyptic threat of Leviathan.
At its heart, the story is about sisterhood, sacrifice, and survival in a world where magic is both salvation and curse. Dawson creates a world that mirrors real struggles for identity, equality, and leadership while anchoring the tale in a gripping narrative of war, loss, and resilience. It’s the 3rd book in the Her Majesty’s Royal Coven series by the author.
Summary
The story opens with a haunting memory from Galway twenty-five years earlier. Twins Niamh and Ciara Kelly, as children, encounter a strange woman at a fairground who reveals herself to be a witch.
She attempts to abduct them, but their own psychic powers allow them to resist. The encounter ends with the witch’s cryptic promise of horrors to come, though the girls retain no memory of it afterward.
This event foreshadows the conflicts that will shape their lives.
Decades later, in Hebden Bridge, Theo is lured into necromancy by Milo Pearson, who is revealed to be Lucifer in disguise. Through a forbidden ritual using the Song of Osiris, Theo resurrects Niamh, who had died.
Niamh is ripped from the afterlife, clawing her way out of a grave, and reunites with her twin sister Ciara, who is still alive. The coven witnesses her miraculous return, but her resurrection brings with it a dark consequence—Leviathan’s shadow binds itself to her.
Meanwhile, in Cornwall, Snow Vance-Morrill, daughter of Helena, trains as a witch of immense power. Haunted by visions of her dead mother, she wrestles with ambition and grief.
In London, Leonie discovers an impossible pregnancy, knowing she hasn’t been with a man. Suspecting it is linked to Dabney Hale’s past influence, she considers an abortion.
Her former ally Senait warns her cryptically before vanishing, leaving Leonie shaken. Later, Madame Celestine confirms the child is Gaia’s own daughter, a divine gift, not a curse.
Elle struggles with grief over her stillborn son and the false memories Lucifer once planted in her. Her daughter Holly pulls her back into life, insisting she attend Niamh’s memorial.
At that gathering, Niamh, now High Priestess of Her Majesty’s Royal Coven, warns her sisters of the growing threat of Satanis. Conflict erupts when American High Priestess Alyssa Grabowski undermines her, and Theo’s necromancy is revealed, sparking calls for punishment.
Niamh defends Theo fiercely, vowing to protect her at the inquest.
Ciara, imprisoned and powerless, faces threats from fellow inmates. Cassidy Kane, possessed by a demonic force, tempts her to join Satanis’s legion.
Ciara refuses, but realizes she cannot escape his influence forever. Across the coven, fractures deepen, and the witches sense the war to come.
Niamh begins to set up a war council at HMRC headquarters, gathering reports of unnatural weather and omens across the world. Yet she is tormented by the shadow-creature that followed her from death, a parasite tethered to Leviathan.
Theo, still only fifteen, is isolated and targeted by Lucifer’s manipulations. In a surreal psychic realm, he tempts her with visions of power, urging her to surrender.
She resists but is shaken and considers running away. At her inquest, she is spared exile but must train in Wales under Niamh’s guardianship.
Their bond grows as Niamh becomes both protector and mentor, hiding her own fears about the shadow haunting her.
Leonie’s pregnancy grows heavier with meaning after Madame Celestine confirms it is Gaia’s child. Chinara reassures her, promising love and support, leaving Leonie to face her role as a vessel for something greater than herself.
Elle, meanwhile, finds solace in Radley, who suggests a future together, though grief makes her hesitant. At a lantern memorial, the witches begin to accept the battles ahead, even as witchfinders regroup in the shadows.
Tensions rise when Niamh confides in Ciara that Leviathan’s shadow is tethered to her. She begs Ciara to kill her again to sever the link, but Ciara refuses.
Their argument is cut short when disaster strikes: Theo and Holly attempt a binding ritual to trap Lucifer, but it fails disastrously. Snow, possessed by Belial, attacks, and the cottage burns.
Though they defeat Belial, Lucifer appears, threatening Theo. Cornered and desperate to save her loved ones, Theo accepts his hand and is taken by him.
With the cottage destroyed, Snow dead, and Theo missing, the witches regroup. A portal to Aeaea, the legendary sanctuary of witches, is opened.
On the island, they gather allies and study ancient prophecies, learning that a blade once slain a demon and may do so again. Niamh wrestles with leadership, her complicated feelings for Luke, and the crushing burden of responsibility.
Holly’s prophetic visions reveal that Niamh, Ciara, Leonie, Elle, and Helena are Gaia’s chosen.
Meanwhile, Theo remains trapped with Lucifer, stranded at sea, enduring his temptations and nihilistic rants. He insists the world must be destroyed and remade, but she resists.
On Aeaea, the witches battle waves of corpses raised by Lucifer, while Niamh and the chosen descend into the caverns to call upon Gaia’s aid. Ciara ultimately confronts Satanis and, unable to kill Theo trapped within him, offers herself as his vessel instead.
She willingly merges with him, believing she is strong enough to contain his power.
At the same time, Leonie goes into labor. With Chinara’s support, she realizes the child—Senait—must be born on Aeaea to preserve the timeline.
Through a paradox of magic, she travels back decades earlier, entrusting her daughter to witches of the past. Niamh later faces her sister Ciara, now merged with Satanis, in a nightmarish version of their childhood fairground.
Despite his dominance, Niamh senses Ciara within and, at her sister’s urging, stabs her with the sacred dagger. Ciara dies, finally at peace, dissolving into golden dust returned to Gaia.
Elsewhere, Elle confronts her son Milo, briefly resurrected as Lucifer’s vessel. Refusing to be deceived again, she kills him, releasing her grief and anger.
With Satanis destroyed and the rift in the sky sealed, Theo is freed, choosing to take Niamh’s surname as her own. Leonie and Chinara return from the past, older but alive, reunited with their friends.
The coven mourns Ciara but celebrates their survival and hard-won unity.
Months later, Niamh leads a historic reform. At an international gathering, she dissolves Her Majesty’s Royal Coven and creates the National Union of Covens, free from government control.
Elle establishes the Healers Network, Leonie continues with Diaspora, and their friendships remain unshakable. Leonie and Chinara are reunited with their daughter Senait, now an elderly woman who lived a long and full life after traveling back to 1953.
Their family is larger and stronger than they imagined.
Theo departs for dance school in Wales, embraced by Niamh and Elle as family. Ciara, though gone, remains in her own created universe, living eternally with Lucifer trapped at her side, mischievous as ever.
In the end, the witches rebuild, choosing love, resilience, and reimagined covens. Through sacrifice and rebirth, they forge a new path, ensuring that their legacy endures under Gaia’s watch.
Characters
Niamh Kelly
Niamh stands at the emotional and political core of Human Rites, embodying both fragility and resilience. Her journey from death to resurrection is not only a miraculous event but also a profound exploration of trauma, identity, and leadership.
Initially, she is portrayed as fragile and withdrawn, shaken by her return from the Afterglow and haunted by the parasitic shadow of Leviathan. Yet, her determination to face life again, despite her unease, demonstrates her strength.
As High Priestess of HMRC, and later the architect of the National Union of Covens, she represents a new vision of witchcraft—one that resists authoritarian control and centers collective empowerment. Niamh’s complex relationship with Ciara, her twin, underscores her humanity; even when forced to kill her sister, she acts out of love and duty.
Her resilience, her willingness to confront horrors, and her deep sense of responsibility define her as both tragic and triumphant.
Ciara Kelly
Ciara is perhaps the most tragic and morally conflicted figure in Human Rites. Having endured imprisonment, demonic temptations, and alienation, she constantly wrestles with her fractured loyalties and her yearning for redemption.
Unlike Niamh, she embraces darkness at several points—not always out of malice, but out of desperation and survival. Her eventual choice to become Satanis’s vessel is framed not as a betrayal but as a final act of agency: she seizes control of her fate, even if it means carrying the ultimate burden.
Her bond with Niamh remains central, and her willingness to ask her sister to end her life cements her role as both tragic martyr and flawed hero. In death, Ciara achieves peace, and even in her pocket universe, she retains her mischievous, rebellious essence, unrepentant yet strangely liberated.
Theo
Theo is the youngest and most conflicted member of the coven, her arc defined by guilt, temptation, and an unyielding fight for autonomy. Her act of necromancy in resurrecting Niamh sets the entire narrative in motion, branding her both a savior and a transgressor in the eyes of the coven.
Throughout the story, she is relentlessly pursued by Lucifer, who tempts her with visions of godhood and manipulates her vulnerabilities. Despite her youth and fear, Theo demonstrates extraordinary resilience, resisting possession and manipulation even when isolated.
Her bond with Niamh, who becomes her guardian, grounds her emotionally, allowing her to grow beyond her mistakes. By the end, choosing to take Niamh’s surname signifies her reclamation of identity, belonging, and a new path forward.
Leonie
Leonie’s arc in Human Rites is deeply rooted in themes of motherhood, identity, and faith. Her mysterious pregnancy—later revealed as Gaia’s gift—forces her to reconcile her personal desires with a cosmic responsibility.
As a lesbian who never sought motherhood in a traditional sense, her journey challenges societal and magical expectations, pushing her toward acceptance of a destiny larger than herself. Her partnership with Chinara offers stability and love, and together they endure the extraordinary sacrifice of traveling through time to safeguard their child’s fate.
Leonie is both pragmatic and spiritual, often the moral compass of the group, and her eventual reunion with her grown daughter closes her narrative arc with profound emotional resonance.
Elle
Elle is defined by grief, resilience, and the rediscovery of her own power. Haunted by the loss of her son Milo and the manipulations of Lucifer, she carries deep scars, both emotional and magical.
Her healing process is gradual—pushed forward by her daughter Holly and her reconnection with Radley—but ultimately culminates in an extraordinary moment of catharsis when she destroys Lucifer’s vessel. This act is both brutal and liberating, marking her transition from victimhood to empowerment.
Elle also demonstrates unexpected magical strength, revitalizing life with ease, suggesting that her grief has forged not weakness but hidden reserves of power. By establishing the Healers Network, she transforms her personal pain into collective healing, embodying resilience in its purest form.
Snow Vance-Morrill
Snow embodies ambition, fragility, and tragedy. As Helena’s daughter, she struggles with identity and maternal absence, clinging to nightly visions of her dead mother while striving to surpass her peers as an elemental witch.
Her longing for belonging and her hunger for power make her vulnerable to demonic possession, which ultimately leads to her violent death. Snow’s arc is brief but poignant, highlighting the dangers of ambition without grounding, as well as the devastating generational legacies within witch families.
Lucifer / Milo
Lucifer, often disguised as Milo, is the embodiment of manipulation, seduction, and destruction in Human Rites. His power lies not only in his magic but also in his ability to exploit emotional wounds.
With Theo, he plays on her guilt and desire for belonging; with Elle, he cruelly resurrects her grief by wearing Milo’s face. His rhetoric about humanity’s cruelty to the planet and the need for rebirth cloaks his true hunger for domination in a veneer of ideology.
Yet, his downfall at Elle’s hands demonstrates that his power, while immense, is not insurmountable. Lucifer functions as both antagonist and corrupter, his presence warping every arc until he is finally undone.
Senait
Senait is both prophecy and paradox, a child born of Gaia yet destined to shape history by existing out of time. Entrusted to the witches of the past and later reappearing as an elderly woman, Senait embodies cyclical destiny, bridging generations.
Her existence forces Leonie and Chinara to confront the weight of fate, love, and sacrifice, while her choice to live a full, ordinary life underscores one of the novel’s central themes: destiny may guide, but love defines.
Themes
Resurrection and Its Consequences
The act of resurrection in Human Rites is not treated as a miraculous gift without consequence but rather as a profound disturbance of natural order. Niamh’s return from death is marked not by joy alone but by disorientation, trauma, and the haunting presence of Leviathan’s shadow that clings to her soul.
Resurrection here functions as a metaphor for the way unresolved grief and loss persist, even when circumstances appear to be reversed. The world of the living and the realm of the dead are shown as interconnected, where disturbing one inevitably destabilizes the other.
For Theo, who undertakes the act of necromancy, the weight of guilt and responsibility highlights how the desire to undo death can spring from love but lead to devastating consequences. The narrative does not glorify her bravery but underscores how this decision alters her trajectory, exposing her to Lucifer’s manipulations.
Similarly, Niamh herself embodies the paradox of resurrection—revered as a High Priestess but privately fractured by the terror of being tethered to Leviathan. The novel insists that resurrection is not a neat reversal of tragedy; instead, it magnifies trauma, questions agency, and interrogates whether such power should exist at all.
This theme urges readers to consider the emotional and cosmic costs of disrupting mortality, emphasizing that life regained does not erase scars but instead deepens them.
Power, Ambition, and Corruption
Throughout Human Rites, power is depicted as both necessary and dangerous. The witches are constantly balancing their devotion to Gaia and the collective survival of covens against personal desires for authority and recognition.
Niamh’s rise to leadership as High Priestess forces her to navigate political rivalries, particularly with figures like Alyssa Grabowski, who embodies a more corporate, detached approach to witchcraft. Snow, Helena’s daughter, presents another angle: a prodigy whose yearning for strength leads her into the dangerous pull of possession and eventual ruin.
Theo’s encounters with Lucifer reveal how seductive power can be when framed as liberation or transcendence, tempting her with promises of divinity and control in exchange for submission. Meanwhile, Elle and Leonie also grapple with their own burdens of strength—Elle realizing her underestimated magical potential and Leonie bearing Gaia’s divine child.
The recurring lesson is that ambition, when unchecked by compassion and accountability, leaves individuals vulnerable to corruption, possession, or exploitation. Yet the story does not condemn ambition entirely; rather, it acknowledges the necessity of powerful leaders in the face of apocalyptic threats, while warning that personal hunger for power often invites destruction.
Sisterhood and Female Solidarity
At its heart, the novel champions the bonds between women, portraying them as both the source of resilience and the ultimate defense against darkness. The coven is not simply a collection of witches but a living symbol of solidarity, where survival hinges on trust, shared grief, and the willingness to protect one another.
Niamh and Ciara’s relationship exemplifies the complexities of sisterhood—deep love interlaced with betrayal, estrangement, and finally sacrifice. Their bond culminates in tragedy, when Niamh must kill Ciara to end Satanis, yet the act is portrayed as one of profound love, granting her sister peace.
Similarly, Leonie and Chinara’s partnership is a testament to queer love and chosen family, strengthened further by their shared role in Senait’s time-altered destiny. Elle’s journey is equally tied to support from her friends, as she learns to reframe her grief not in isolation but through communal healing.
The emphasis on sisterhood extends beyond familial ties into a larger political statement: covens as collectives are strongest when women support one another rather than allowing divisions, envy, or external manipulation to fracture them. This theme underscores the survival of the witches not as the triumph of individuals but of solidarity rooted in shared struggle.
Fate, Prophecy, and Sacrifice
The presence of prophecy and destiny in Human Rites complicates the choices characters make, often blurring the line between free will and inevitability. Leonie’s pregnancy becomes the clearest embodiment of fate, as her child Senait is destined to shape history by being born in the past.
This paradoxical cycle demonstrates how time itself is bent around prophecy, placing Leonie in the uncomfortable position of carrying both Gaia’s blessing and a predetermined role in cosmic survival. For Ciara, fate manifests as a lifelong tether to destruction, culminating in her decision to willingly host Satanis, a choice that fuses agency with inevitability.
Niamh, too, struggles against the prophecies foretelling Leviathan’s rise, constantly questioning whether her leadership is a true choice or a burden she was always meant to shoulder. Sacrifice becomes the necessary price of fate—whether it is Ciara’s death, Elle’s decision to destroy Milo, or Theo’s loss of innocence in resisting Lucifer.
The narrative does not present prophecy as a simple script but as a force that interacts with personal choice, where characters still decide how to meet their destiny even if they cannot escape it. Sacrifice, then, emerges as both the fulfillment of prophecy and the expression of agency, giving the witches’ final acts of resistance a tragic but empowering resonance.
Rebirth and Renewal
Amid all the destruction, Human Rites ultimately ends with visions of renewal, showing that cycles of death and loss can still yield transformation. The formation of the National Union of Covens represents a decisive break from government-controlled structures, signaling that the future of witchcraft will be built on collaboration rather than hierarchy.
This rebirth is not without cost—the coven mourns Ciara, Snow, and countless others—but the survivors rebuild with intention, creating a more inclusive and resilient order. Leonie and Chinara’s reunion with their daughter Senait in old age also highlights this theme, reframing time itself as a source of generational renewal rather than loss.
Theo’s departure to begin her independent journey underscores the passing of the torch, a recognition that the younger generation must chart its own course. Even Ciara’s pocket universe with Lucifer, though unsettling, reflects a form of rebirth—choosing her own eternity rather than submitting to annihilation.
Renewal in the novel is not naive optimism but the hard-won result of survival, sacrifice, and transformation. By ending with reform, expanded families, and new beginnings, the narrative insists that even in the wake of apocalyptic threat, there is room for growth, love, and reimagining the future.