Reunion characters

Also known as Suze

Appears from the start

A sixteen-year-old mediator, transplanted from Brooklyn to Carmel-by-the-Sea by her mother's remarriage. She can see and speak with the dead, who come to her for help finishing whatever holds them here, and she has kept it from her family her whole life. By now she is settled at the Junipero Serra Mission Academy, works with its principal on the town's hauntings, and has learned that most of them end with her injured. She shares her bedroom with a ghost she has stopped pretending is only an inconvenience.

Appears from the start

The ghost of a young man who died in the nineteenth century in what is now Suze's bedroom, and who has stayed there ever since without explaining why. Courteous, watchful and old-fashioned, he has become Suze's confidant and the one person she tells the truth to, and he objects, consistently and without effect, to the risks she takes.

Appears from the start

The principal of the Mission Academy and, like Suze, a mediator. Elderly and endlessly patient, he believes the dead should be counseled rather than fought, disapproves of nearly everything Suze does, and works with her anyway. He is the only adult who knows what she is.

First appears in chapter 2

Four teenagers from a nearby private school who died together when their car went off the coast highway, and who are still here. The town mourns them as the RLS Angels. They hold the driver of the other car responsible for their deaths, they have decided to make him pay for it, and they are willing to hurt anyone who stands in the way.

First appears in chapter 3

A quiet, unpopular junior at the Mission Academy, more at home with computers and science than with people. He was driving the other car in the crash that killed four teenagers from a neighboring school, and he walked away from it. He has been withdrawn and frightened ever since, cannot see the four who blame him, and becomes grateful to the point of awkwardness toward the one person who takes his side.

Appears from the start

Suze's classmate and friend, a writer for the school paper with albinism and an unmatched memory for local history, gossip and back issues of the newspaper. Her research is what turns a rumor into a usable fact.

Appears from the start

CeeCee's constant companion and Suze's friend, cheerful and unserious, and generally the one with a car.

First appears in chapter 3

The wealthiest and most socially powerful student at the Mission Academy, whose invitations decide who matters that week.

Appears from the start

Suze's stepfather, a contractor still working his way through the restoration of the family's old Carmel house. Easygoing, domestic, and entirely unaware of what his stepdaughter does after dark.

Appears from the start

A television journalist, widowed young, now remarried and settled in California. She notices her daughter's injuries and late nights and has no idea what causes them.

Also known as Sleepy

Appears from the start

The eldest stepbrother, whose interests are sleeping, his job and his car, in no fixed order. Suze calls him Sleepy.

Also known as Dopey

Appears from the start

The stepbrother in Suze's own year, a wrestler who has never made peace with her existence. Suze calls him Dopey.

Also known as Doc

Appears from the start

The youngest stepbrother, a twelve-year-old who reads encyclopedias for pleasure and volunteers the results. He is the one Suze actually likes, and she calls him Doc.