Charlotte “Charlie” St. Clair

Charlie St. Clair is the one of the main characters. She is the narrator of about half of the novel. She is a girl who despises her femininity because she has always been told a woman must act and dress a certain way. Charlotte, who is referred to most often by her nickname, the masculine Charlie, would rather work math problems than read magazines or dress in frills and ruffles.

In Charlie’s attempt to feel something other than pain after the suicide of her brother, a war veteran, Charlie slept around with multiple members of a fraternity at the college she attended. Her father labeled her a whore and her mother made an appointment for an abortion. Charlie, however, had other plans for her life.

Charlie had never completely believed that her older cousin Rose, who was like a sister to her, had died...