Hopeless characters

Appears from the start

The seventeen-year-old narrator. The novel's opening finds Sky in an emotional crisis involving Holder before the story returns to the weeks leading up to it.

Also known as Holder

First appears in chapter 3

An intense teenage boy who reacts to Sky with startling familiarity when they meet. His forceful questions and sudden attention leave her unsure whether he recognizes her or has simply mistaken her for someone else.

First appears in chapter 2

Sky's adoptive mother, who has raised her with affection but under unusually strict limits on technology, media, and formal schooling. Karen practices a lifestyle centered on health and privacy and is deeply uneasy about Sky attending public school.

First appears in chapter 2

Sky's outspoken best friend and next-door neighbor. Six has shared Sky's rule-breaking and provided much of her contact with ordinary teenage life, but she leaves for a student exchange in Italy just before Sky begins public school.

First appears in chapter 8

A friendly student Sky meets at school. Breckin calls himself a Mormon and quickly becomes her closest companion there, offering humor and loyalty when gossip about her makes the new environment hostile.

First appears in chapter 2

A boy from Sky's neighborhood with whom she has had a casual physical relationship. Sky's lack of emotional response during their encounters reflects the detachment she has come to expect around boys.

First appears in chapter 18

Holder's twin sister, who died by suicide before Sky met him. Holder's grief and his belief that he failed Lesslie shape his temper, his guardedness, and the meaning he attaches to the word tattooed on his arm.

First appears in chapter 41

Holder's close friend. Daniel is one of the few people Holder trusts when Sky's recovered past creates an immediate crisis that the two teenagers cannot manage alone.

First appears in chapter 41

The father from Sky's recovered early-childhood memories. Once Sky understands why Karen removed her from her first home, he becomes the person she and Holder must confront about the abuse that shaped both Sky's missing past and Lesslie's death.