Maeve Fly

Kate is Maeve’s best friend and coworker at the princess park. She is 26 years old and described by Maeve as “unwaveringly virtuous.” Despite having some idea of the dark side that Maeve is hiding, Kate befriends and stays by Maeve for years and is the only person that Maeve can truly count on. In this way, Kate embodies the theme of the importance of connecting with others, as she gives Maeve hope that she will not be alone forever.

Kate serves largely as a foil to Maeve in the text—at least in Maeve’s eyes. When Maeve describes Kate, she does so in comparison to herself, noting Kate’s kindness, compassion, and commitment to their friendship, even if Maeve does not believe that she is worthy of it. Her acknowledgment that Kate is the “protagonist”—rather than Maeve herself—emphasizes Kate’s virtuous attributes while highlighting Maeve’s perceived negative ones. Central to Kate’s character is her relationship with Derek, a famous movie director that she has sex with to get a part in one of his movies and start her acting career. However, Maeve notices bruises appearing on Kate’s neck and shoulders, which she realizes are being caused by Derek’s abuse. When Maeve tries to get Kate to explain them and to leave Derek, Kate dismisses her, emphasizing a key difference between Maeve and Kate. While Maeve uses violence and death to protect herself and get what she wants, Kate allows herself to be exploited and even abused by powerful men in the hope of professional gain.

The conflict that occurs between Maeve and Kate at the Halloween party highlights the differences between these two characters. After Maeve tortures Derek, Kate believes that she slept with him to show her that he is disloyal and to protect her. Kate yells at Maeve, insisting that she understands what she is doing and does not need protection. She angrily asks Maeve, “I shouldn’t spend time with him, the man who is making my career and giving me what I have always wanted because he isn’t good? What, and you’re good, Maeve? You’re some paragon of virtue?” (247). These words highlight the irony of what Maeve has done. She tortured and nearly killed Derek because of what he was doing to Kate, while ignoring the fact that her very act of torture makes her evil in turn. In this way, Kate serves to emphasize Maeve’s status as an antihero: She points out Maeve’s flaws and calls attention to her hypocrisy.

Gideon is Kate’s brother. He is a star hockey player who moves to Los Angeles when he is traded to its NHL team. He is described as tall, muscular, and handsome, with Maeve believing that he is the “golden boy” in Kate’s family due to his success and likability. When he comes to Los Angeles, he immediately tries to befriend Maeve, hinting that he knows who she truly is and offering her sex as an outlet for her rage and an escape from her problems.

Although Gideon is a relatively flat character, with little known about him, he is important in his ability to understand and connect with Maeve. Gideon becomes a source of hope for Maeve as she loses her grandmother and Kate. Gideon emphasizes the importance of personal connection, as Maeve’s relationship with him allows her to forget about her dying grandmother. When Maeve is with Gideon, she can quell her rage, instead feeling true human connection for the first time with someone other than Kate and Tallulah.

Gideon is a key component of The Distinction Between The Private Self and the Public Persona as he hides who he truly is from both the reader and Maeve throughout much of the novel. Even though he is a well-liked, famous hockey player, Gideon, like Maeve, is a serial killer. In the final pages of the novel, Maeve discovers that he has killed eight people—starting with his childhood best friend—and was trying to convey this information to Maeve so that she could understand how similar they truly are. Gideon’s death marks the point of no return for Maeve, as it sends her into despair and reaffirms for her that she is destined to be alone forever.

Tallulah is Maeve’s grandmother. When Maeve’s parents kick her out of the house a few years before the start of the novel, Tallulah takes Maeve in and allows her to live with her in Los Angeles. She is a former Hollywood actress from decades before, one whose image people recognize if not her name. Maeve describes how Tallulah was considered “the most angelic of the starlets, her face eternally youthful and innocent, her natural nearly white-blonde hair a rare commodity in this town. And her eyes. Blue as ice” (12). When Maeve moved to Los Angeles, Tallulah immediately recognized that they shared a secret rage that they hid from the public. She spent years teaching Maeve how to murder and dispose of bodies, as well as how to hide her true nature and exist in Hollywood.

When the novel begins, Tallulah is terminally ill with cirrhosis. She spends the entire novel in a coma until she dies, yet she serves as an important part of Maeve’s character. The similarities that Maeve shares with her grandmother emphasize the power of personal connection, as Tallulah provided Maeve with a home and a sense of belonging. Additionally, Maeve’s loss of her grandmother is a key catalyst for her descent into violence and rage. Because Maeve felt as though Tallulah was the only person who would ever truly understand her, her death leaves Maeve feeling irrevocably alone.