Serafina

Serafina is the novel’s main character. She secretly lives in the basement with her father at the Biltmore Estate. She is a curious, stubborn, tenacious, and feisty girl who loves her father, but has a lot of questions about her life. During the course of the narration, she solves two mysteries: the identity of the Man in the Black Cloak and the mystery of her own identity. She is a catamount which means that she is part cat and part human.

Through Serafina, the novel explores several issues including good vs evil, the need to have an identity that matches society’s expectations, and social status issues. She longs for a mother and what she thinks is a typical family. However, when she finds her real family, they do not fit her image of a typical family either. She gets mad at her father for keeping her...