Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of drug/alcohol addiction and psychological abuse.

Maya is the novel’s protagonist. The story—narrated in limited third person—is told from Maya’s perspective. Her strong imagination, family history of mental health conditions, and Klonopin withdrawal make her an unreliable narrator. Throughout the book, it is often uncertain whether Maya‘s experiences are real or products of her vivid imagination, hallucinations, anxiety, and alcohol use.

In high school, Maya is a strong student and avid reader, which distances her from her peers. Her one close friend is Aubrey West, whom she meets in ninth grade English. Maya dreams of leaving Pittsfield and becoming a writer. She attends Boston University and studies English. This connects her to her father, who was an English student and writer before his untimely death. Maya’s life is shattered when Aubrey is killed at age 17, the week before Maya starts college. Maya blames her ex-boyfriend, Frank, and spends years haunted by the summer Frank entered her life and Aubrey died.

Maya’s identity is fragmented. She carries her cultural heritage visibly in her appearance and stands out in her predominately white hometown of Pittsfield, Massachusetts: “She was olive-skinned and ethnically ambiguous […] She was, in fact, half Guatemalan, a quarter Irish, and a quarter Italian.