Kate Garfield

Kate Garfield is the 17-year-old main character of the novel. A rising junior in high school, Kate is a devout member of the school’s theatre club, although at the opening in the novel she has only been cast in ensemble roles. Kate has wavy brown-blonde hair that is “notorious[ly]”(9) messy, “white-girl-on-Youtube wavy” (9). Kate is Jewish with amicably divorced parents. Although Kate has had her permit for a year-and-a-half, she is content to be “a passenger seat kind of person” (9).

Kate is insecure at the novel’s opening, viewing her own attractiveness as “highly hair-correlated” (9). Kate is also anxious, taking Xanax every night in order to sleep. In terms of friendships, Kate appears to be co-dependent on her best friend Anderson (Andy) in that they, as a rule, only crush on people together. Kate, Andy, and their other two friends, Raina and Brandie, are known as...