For the Fans

As the novel’s second protagonist, Avi is a dynamic and round character who serves as the catalyst for Kyran’s emotional healing and growth. He is introduced as an introspective and artistic “weirdo” with a carefree exterior that conceals his anxieties about finding his place in the world. Having lost his father at a young age, his primary emotional anchor is his mother, Hannah, with whom he shares a close, honest relationship. This foundation of unconditional love shapes his worldview and allows him to offer the same to Kyran. Avi’s defining trait is his capacity for non-judgmental acceptance. He is drawn to authenticity and finds the rigid social hierarchies of high school and college, epitomized by Kyran’s jock status, to be predictable and hollow.

Avi frequently functions as Kyran’s foil, particularly because the qualities Kyran initially dismisses as aimlessness are also qualities he envies. Avi tolerates being regarded as an outcast rather than devoting himself to conventional popularity, pursues art despite uncertainty about its practicality, and eventually becomes the deliberately ridiculous Baldwin the Eagle within Kyran’s highly structured football world. His unwavering affection and patience, even in the face of Kyran’s hostility, slowly dismantle the walls Kyran has built around himself. Avi’s journey is one of self-discovery as well; through his relationship with Kyran, he confronts and embraces his own bisexuality, finding a sense of purpose and direction that was previously lacking.

Avi’s development is marked by increasing agency. Initially, major changes happen to him, as he allows himself to drift and to feel as though he is content being alone. His mother begins a new relationship, Kyran is hostile and dismissive of him, he is forced to move schools and homes, and he later faces the possibility of losing his college housing because of Tom’s financial collapse. Creating online content is one of his first major attempts to solve a problem for himself, and his later choices similarly become more deliberate. He develops meaningful friendships, acknowledges his bisexuality, becomes increasingly confident in his artistic ability, and eventually pursues art professionally. Ultimately, falling in love with Kyran solidifies his identity. He finds in Kyran a person who sees and values his unique qualities as he changes from an outsider to a cherished partner. His unconditional love provides the foundation for Kyran’s recovery, making him the central figure in the novel’s theme of Self-Acceptance and the Process of Healing.

Frankie is Avi’s closest confidante and one of the primary catalysts for the main plot. Characterized by her bold, pragmatic, and sexually liberated personality, Frankie is fiercely loyal and unapologetically herself. She is the one who introduces the idea of creating an OnlyFans account, providing Avi with the practical means to solve his financial problems and, inadvertently, the private space to develop his relationship with Kyran. Because of her own success as a content creator, she acts as a guide, or “OnlyFans Yoda” (71), for Avi, offering him advice and encouragement without judgment.

Frankie’s attitude toward online sex work provides a counterweight to Kyran’s anxiety and shame. For Frankie, creating content is work she has chosen and understands pragmatically. Her presence therefore prevents The Burden of Maintaining a Public Image from becoming a simplistic contrast between respectable public life and shameful private behavior. In her words, “[y]ou need to be a professional. […] The only way you’ll make real money doing this is if you look at it like a job” (72). The same activity that Kyran fears could destroy his reputation is something Frankie discusses without embarrassment, emphasizing the way that the burden comes from the meanings characters and their communities attach to visibility rather than from the work itself.

Tom, Kyran’s father, is initially perceived as an antagonist in Kyran’s emotional journey. However, he appears markedly different depending on whose perspective defines him. To Hannah and Avi, he can be affectionate, successful, and enthusiastic about creating a new family; to Kyran, he is controlling, emotionally distant, and invested only in achievement and appearances. This discrepancy makes Tom central to the theme of The Burden of Maintaining a Public Image. His insistence upon control extends from his Catholic identity and expectations for Kyran to his attempts to conceal financial problems, creating a family environment in which preserving stability often takes precedence over acknowledging that something is wrong.

Tom is the primary enforcer of the secrecy surrounding Kyran’s childhood trauma, having prioritized his reputation and the family’s public image over his son’s well-being. Tom initially refuses to believe Kyran, and the family’s subsequent nondisclosure settlement contributes to years of silence surrounding the abuse. In this way, he is central to the theme of Trauma and the Cost of Secrecy, as his response to Kyran’s original trauma compounds its impact. As a result, this act of denial is the root of Kyran’s deep-seated anger and need for control. Confronted with information that threatened his beliefs and understanding of his family, he initially protects those structures rather than his son, damaging their relationship for years after. 

However, as a dynamic character, Tom undergoes a significant change as he begins to accept the damage he did to Kyran. The loss of his business shatters his facade of success, forcing him into a state of vulnerability. This, combined with Kyran’s final, powerful confrontation, leads to a breakthrough. Tom’s apology and his eventual acceptance of Kyran’s relationship with Avi mark a redemptive arc, as he begins to dismantle the patriarchal and rigid belief system that caused his family so much pain.

Hannah is Avi’s mother and Tom’s eventual wife, whose relationship with her son establishes one of the novel’s clearest alternatives to the Harbor family’s emotional dysfunction. Warm, affectionate, and communicative, Hannah has raised Avi largely on her own since the death of his father and has developed a relationship with him built upon unusual openness. Avi regards her as his closest emotional anchor, initially calling her “my best friend and the only person I have in this world” (22). In this way, their ability to communicate provides an important contrast with the silence between Tom and Kyran, a fact which is underscored through their individual points of view. 

Hannah’s eventual response to Tom gives her a greater degree of agency than her early role suggests. Initially, she remains unaware of the dysfunction within the Harbor family, witnessing Tom behaving warmly toward herself and Avi without knowing how different his history with his own children have been. However, once his financial insecurity and the deeper history surrounding Kyran become increasingly apparent, she refuses to preserve the marriage merely for the appearance of family stability. Her decision to divorce Tom connects her to the theme of The Burden of Maintaining a Public Image by emphasizing the importance she places on honesty and respect—in direct contrast to Tom’s actions. As a static character, she does not change throughout the novel, but her consistent willingness to believe, comfort, and communicate provides a model of parental support against which Tom’s failures become even more visible.

Bridget is Kyran’s estranged older sister who is physically absence throughout much of the novel. Having moved to California to escape her toxic family environment, her presence is felt through Kyran’s sense of abandonment. When she finally appears at the Rose Bowl, however, her perspective expands the reader’s understanding of the Harbor family. She remembers Kyran as a once-carefree child who became withdrawn, while carrying enduring guilt over leaving home when her younger brother remained trapped within the family’s dysfunction.

Bridget’s most important act is revealing Kyran’s history of sexual abuse to Avi without Kyran’s permission. Narratively, this provides information necessary to reinterpret Kyran’s behavior and character, but the choice also raises a more complicated question about ownership of traumatic stories. She acts out of love, guilt, and a belief that Avi needs to understand what Kyran can’t explain. However, Kyran’s distress over learning that she has told Avi underscores the idea that good intentions do not eliminate the consequences of disclosure. Her role therefore complicates the theme of Trauma and the Cost of Secrecy: the novel condemns the silence imposed upon Kyran, but it does not suggest that the opposite extreme of having someone else decide when his trauma should be revealed is the answer either.