Home of the American Circus

Aubrey is Freya’s niece and an important secondary character. Aubrey is Steena and Charlie’s first child. Although only 15, Aubrey demonstrates a maturity beyond her years, learned in part from becoming self-sufficient after Steena kicked Aubrey out of the house. Aubrey is a sensitive child and she has always been aware that her mother loves and favors Aubrey’s brother, Austin, over Aubrey’s well-being.

When Aubrey was sexually assaulted by an older boy and bullied by kids at school who accused her of getting an abortion, Aubrey took refuge in the art room and became friends with a sensitive, artistic boy named Shray Singh. Steena didn’t like that Shray is flamboyant and gender non-conforming, and she quarreled with Aubrey over their friendship. Aubrey feels hurt that her parents didn’t take her side, but she also takes a resigned attitude toward the situation, not blaming herself but simply accepting the circumstances.

Aubrey proves clever and self-reliant, selling furniture to gain money to pay the utility bills on the house. She continues her friendship with Shray, works at Gristedes to earn money, and steals a rat from the science room at her school because she feels sorry for the way it’s being treated. Aubrey is frustrated by the classmates who bully her but doesn’t report them because she doesn’t want to face further retaliation. Aubrey is sensible, smart, intelligent, and grounded, and in many ways she is far more resilient than Freya.

Aubrey’s character arc over the course of the book is to learn to trust that Freya will care for her, pursue her own dreams of making art and hiking the Appalachian Trail, and finally being able, like Freya, to be free of the town and the family situation that has caused her pain. Aubrey becomes a reflection of the young, strong, self-reliant young woman that Freya wished she had been but is becoming.

Jam is a supporting character, Freya’s high school best friend who has always loved and supported her, and with whom she always supposed she would eventually have a traditional romantic relationship. Jam provides the nurturance Freya needed as a young adult, even if he couldn’t protect her from the ways her family harmed her. Jam’s emotional wounds, connected to his mother, who died by suicide, and the lack of connection or care from his father, provide a parallel for Freya’s damaging family dynamics. His substance dependency provides a warning for Freya on the dangers of self-destructive behaviors.

Jam provides frequent humor in the novel, but he is also artistic, sensitive, loyal, and perceptive about people. Freya is attracted to him and describes him as looking like “the hot, distracted professor-dad in an indie film” (30). Jam has always been interested in music and, during school, performed professionally on the piano. He was accepted into a prestigious music school, but dropped out after his mother’s death, which deeply affected him. Jam now lives with his father and works at the butcher counter in the local grocery store, practicing his music only occasionally.

Freya brings his Steinway piano into her house to give him a place to reconnect with his music, and Jam’s return to playing and writing music provide a parallel to Freya’s reconnection with herself through art. Jam serves as a support for Freya’s efforts, as symbolized by the soundtrack he writes for her hike, but he is also a warning to Freya of what could happen to her if she doesn’t heal her emotional wounds and move past them.

Steena’s full name is Augustina Russo, and she plays the role of antagonist. She is the child of Freya’s mother’s first marriage to a classmate who got her pregnant at a class reunion. The pregnancy and marriage forced Steena’s mother to give up her career in finance in New York City and move back to Somers. After her first divorce, she married Step so she could have a home of her own. Steena resembles their mother, and Freya always felt that Steena was effortlessly beautiful, graceful, and confident.

Steena played an antagonistic role from the beginning of Freya’s life and was frequently mean to her when they were children. She would dare Freya to eat disgusting foods and once convinced Freya that her father wasn’t Step but another man currently in prison. Steena enjoyed this sense of superiority, but she never felt close or connected to Freya. She was grateful for Freya’s help with childcare when Aubrey was born, but Freya often felt Steena’s scorn and contempt. When Charlie assaults Freya, Steena decides to believe that Freya is responsible, and this is the story she tells the family.

Steena is selfish, ambitious, concerned with appearances, and pretends to be sweet only when she thinks it will gain her something. When Freya threatens to expose Charlie’s illegal business practices, Steena chooses to sign away her parental rights to Aubrey, electing to maintain her public image rather than fight to keep her daughter. Freya comes to realize that Steena, like Freya, was deeply hurt as a child by the sense that her mother didn’t want her. Unlike Freya, Steena chooses to relieve this pain by lashing out at others. In this sense, Steena is both a foil to Freya and a measure of Freya’s emotional growth.

Step is a supporting character who only appears as a memory or in flashbacks, but his absence is an important part of the novel, representing how little nurturance, affection, or care Freya experienced in her childhood.

Step ran an insurance company, Arnalds Insurance, and he is described as a wispy, weak-willed man. He fell in love with Freya’s mother for her intelligence, but he was also subject to her scornful and abusive behavior. The worn, faded sweatshirt of Step’s that Freya finds in the backseat of his truck is a symbol for how Freya remembers him in her life: Weak, ineffective, and lacking substance. Though she endured cruelty from her mother and Steena and sexual assault from Charlie, it is really Step’s betrayal that compels Freya to leave Somers. Instead of standing up for his daughter, Step defends Charlie and accuses Freya. His insistence that she apologize is the final injustice that sends Freya away.

Though he didn’t support her in life, Step provides a means of support by leaving Freya his house. Though a shambles, the property gives Freya a place to live and a concrete goal to work toward while she is in Somers. Moreover, Step inspires Aubrey’s wish to hike the Appalachian Trail, and he facilitates the plans they make together by furnishing equipment and notes. In the end, the destruction of the house by fire implies that the insurance money from the loss will help Freya establish a new life she wants, helping her find a home of her own where there will be no shouting, no cruelty, no abuse.

Hans is a supporting character, serving as a mentor and guide to Freya as the lawyer who helps her understand her legal obligations regarding the house. Hans is a type of fatherly figure who helps Freya understand better how her own father failed her by not providing unconditional love. Hans takes pleasure in Freya’s unusual name, making frequent jokes about Norse mythology, and he admits to feeling on her side in the matter of her parents’ estate since he found Steena unpleasant to work with.

Hans is another of the people around her whom Freya realizes is wounded, in his case because his family, too, has abandoned him. After his children grew up and his wife left him, Hans attempted to fulfill his need to nurture by having a daughter, Emmeline. He provides emotional as well as financial support for Freya, and he provides an example of making the best of a situation and attempting to connect to other people despite the mistakes and failures of the past.

Bee is a supporting character who plays the role of Freya’s ally. Bee is another former friend who unquestioningly accepts Freya and welcomes her back. In addition to supporting Freya’s character growth and helping her reconnect with Aubrey, Bee is the crux of a crucial plot moment when Freya discovers the evidence that Charlie was using banned materials in his developments, and Step knew about it. This provides the blackmail material Freya needs at the end to make Charlie and Steena sign over their parental rights to Aubrey.

As her first true friend and the first person to unconditionally love and accept her, Bee provides a baseline for Freya in understanding what real affection looks like. Bee’s concern with friendship, popularity, and dating in middle and high school provided a contrast with Freya’s need to survive the abuse and neglect she experienced in her household. The happy and affectionate Shumer family provided the role model for a functional family, allowing Freya to understand what she was missing. Freya’s ability to resume her friendship with Bee shows that Freya’s ability to love has not been broken, and Bee becomes part of the support network that aids Freya’s emotional and physical recovery.