The following version of the book was used to create the guide: Larkin, Allison. The People We Keep. Gallery Books, 2022.

Allison Larkin’s first-person narrative, The People We Keep, follows the life of April Sawicki as she navigates coming of age. At the outset of the novel, April is living alone in the motorhome, after her father left to live with his new girlfriend, Irene, and her child. April struggles to cope with her feelings of abandonment and worthlessness by playing guitar and writing songs. While she and her boyfriend, Matty, plan to get married, she feels disillusioned by his fantasy of buying a trailer and living in Little River. After her father smashes her guitar, April packs her things into a stolen car and drives to Ithaca.

In the New York college town, the protagonist sleeps in her car at the local campground. She finds a job at a coffee shop, Café Decadence, and begins to form friendships with her coworkers Carly and Bodie. When a regular customer, Adam, offers for her to sleep on his futon, she is wary of his advances. She believes that he has ulterior motives and continues to sleep in her car. Later on, she accepts his invitation and begins to feel comfortable in his presence. She tells him that she is nineteen and continues the charade after they begin an intimate relationship. While April feels connected in her new life in Ithaca, she is terrified when Rosemary, Carly’s ex-girlfriend, discovers that she is sixteen. She runs away to prevent her lie from hurting the people that she loves.

April proceeds to travel the country playing gigs at coffee shops and dive bars. She convinces herself that the nomadic lifestyle is a byproduct of her artistic pursuits, but she feels lonely and disconnected from a sense of identity on the road. After nearly being assaulted, she visits Binghamton, and meets up with Justin, a local college student who she sleeps with whenever she is in town. When she jokingly offers for him to join her on the road he hastily agrees. Soon after their road trip begins, Justin discovers that April trespasses on empty summer houses and chides her for making him an accomplice to crime; he hurriedly boards a flight home. April drives to Asheville soon after. While busking, she meets a local professor, Ethan, who offers to loan her his spare room. She begins to play music at Robert’s restaurant and the three friends settle into an unconventional family dynamic together. When April finds out that she is pregnant, Robert and Ethan are elated. However, April knows that she is a month further along than they suspect and the child’s father can only be Justin. She leaves Asheville without explanation.

While she is in Florida, Margo calls to tell her that her father is dying. Against her better judgement, April drives to Little River for the first time since she was a teenager. She cannot bring herself to enter the church during the funeral and decides to drive to Ithaca. The protagonist surreptitiously leaves the letters she wrote to Carly, over the years, on the café counter before visiting the campground. She buries her father’s guitar pick as a funeral to the person she wanted him to be and allows herself to recognize that his neglect was a reflection of his cowardice, not her worth. The next morning her water breaks and April trips as she attempts to walk to her car. Carly finds her and rushes her to the hospital. When April wakes up, after giving birth to her son Max, she is surrounded by her elective family. Margo, Carly, and Ethan arrive to ensure that she has support. While the protagonist was concerned about her capabilities as a mother, she knows that she and Max have a network of support and love through her friends who will not abandon or neglect them.