Our Last Resort

Frida is the novel’s narrator and protagonist. Even as an adult, she carries emotional scars from a childhood spent in an abusive cult, demonstrating The Persistence of Trauma. Frida experiences anxiety and often worries incessantly. She manages her anxiety in part through compulsive cleaning, and she notes on more than one occasion that ordering the space around her helps her to feel more in control. When she was in the cult, Frida was also sexually assaulted by the cult’s manipulative leader, Émile. The event itself was traumatic, but she was especially struck by the fact that “life went on” after the assault (146). There was no grieving period and the social world of the cult around her did not reflect the emotional storm that the attack created in her.

Despite carrying the scars of her traumatic past, Frida is a survivor who works very hard after escaping the cult to redefine who she is as a person. She finds solace initially in school and work. Frida is highly intelligent with a keen head for numbers and high-level calculations. She has a successful career in the finance sector and works as a day trader.