Angel Falls

As the novel’s protagonist, Mikaela Campbell undergoes a journey of psychological and emotional reconstruction. Her character arc is precipitated by a traumatic brain injury that induces retrograde amnesia, and this narrative device forces her to confront a part of her life that she has kept compartmentalized. Before the accident, Mikaela exists as a woman who has suppressed a significant portion of her past. As “Mikaela,” she is the devoted wife of Liam and mother to Jacey and Bret, but she is also secretly “Kayla,” the former wife of superstar Julian True. The pillowcase of memorabilia that she keeps hidden in her closet functions as a symbol of this unintegrated identity. When the amnesia erases the last 15 years of her memory, she regresses to the persona of hear earlier self, who is still deeply in love with Julian and remembers her daughter, Jacey (full name Juliana), only as an infant. This regression allows the author to explore deeper nuances of Reintegrating Past Selves Into a Coherent Identity, as Mikaela’s recovery requires a psychological reckoning as she pieces together the two disparate versions of herself.