One the novel’s three main characters, Tallulah sees herself as ordinary, worried that having a baby young has left her prematurely old: “She wasn’t the soft romantic girl she’d been before she got pregnant” (83). Tallulah is in an abusive relationship with Zach, the father of her baby. She is ambivalent about staying together with Zach, as her mother would like, or leaving this increasingly controlling and unpredictable man.

The defining moment for Tallulah comes when she meets Scarlett, the coolest and most exciting person Tallulah has ever known. Invited into the mysterious and intriguing world that Scarlett inhabits, Tallulah is transfixed, sexually enthralled, and unwilling to let go the glamour of Scarlett’s orbit. Unfortunately, what Tallulah doesn’t quite realize that is that Scarlett is just another Zach—a manipulative, selfish person who wants to monopolize Tallulah’s attention. It takes a near-death experience for Tallulah to realize what and whom she loves: her son Noah and her mother Kim.

Kim Knox is Tallulah’s earthy, young-looking mom. A divorcee, she is often lonely, but she is totally devoted to her children and her grandson Noah. Kim represents selfless and pure maternal love—something other mothers in the novel do not often display.

After Tallulah’s disappearance, Kim is the locus of the novel’s pathos—a mother desperate for her daughter’s safe return.