Louisa

At the start of the novel, Louisa is an isolated, grief-stricken eighteen-year-old whose life collapsed after the death of her best friend, Fish, and whose difficult home life long deprived her of meaningful adult support. Emotionally guarded yet deeply perceptive, she enters the life of Ted almost by accident when she inherits C. Jat’s painting: an inheritance that becomes the catalyst for her transformation.

Much of Louisa’s journey centers on learning to trust others, to allow herself to be perceived emotionally by people who want to love her, and to understand that chosen family can be just as real and enduring as blood. Crucially, she is more vulnerable than she appears. Her sarcasm and quick wit function as armor, yet beneath them is a boundless capacity for attachment and a terror of abandonment.

Her emerging artistic talent mirrors Kimkim’s—raw, intuitive, emotionally charged—and reflects...