Priest

Poppy is the other main character and Tyler’s romantic interest. While the story belongs to Tyler, Poppy is the catalyst for Tyler’s character development. Before Poppy arrives in the confessional booth, Tyler is content. After he hears Rowan’s confession, he wants to go outside and enjoy the warm weather. He has no sexual plans, but Poppy immediately destabilizes his identity. He doesn’t need to see her to grasp her sensualness. Tyler says, “[H]er voice made me suddenly feel much more man than priest” (16). Tyler and Sterling portray Poppy as forcefully sexual, turning her into a “femme fatale” or “temptress.” Tyler explicitly refers to her as the latter, wondering, “[W]hat if my job was helping the temptress?” (146). This sexual characterization doesn’t deprive Poppy of agency; she sexualizes herself and views sex as a powerful experience. She says, “I liked how it felt. Having men watch me with hooded eyes, wanting me and only me […] I loved the way the men responded to my body. I loved that I made them hard” (72). Working as an adult entertainer was Poppy’s form of communion; it’s an intimate interaction that she controlled through her body.

Like Tyler, Poppy is introspective, and she complicates her views on her sexuality. She says, “It didn’t work out with Sterling because he can’t differentiate between the two, the bedroom and real life. He thinks because I liked the way he treated me during sex that was how I wanted to be treated all the time” (263-64). Poppy is sexual, but sex doesn’t define her, and her desire for rough sex isn’t permission to mistreat her in other contexts. Poppy’s nuanced perspective highlights the trickiness of desire; it’s not straightforward, and it isn’t always compatible with common notions of virtue. The book’s graphic account of sex makes sex seem all-consuming, but Poppy restricts it. There’s her “bedroom” self and “real-life” self; her sexual identity doesn’t jeopardize who she is when she’s not having sex or in a sexual space.

Simone complicates Poppy’s “temptress”/“femme fatale” archetype through her background. She comes from a wealthy family and went to a prestigious Ivy League university, where she earned a degree in business. Her education underscores her dynamic character arc. She performed at a club before assisting with its finances. Put simply, she’s both a sex worker and a “girl boss.” Through Poppy, Simone undercuts common tropes about women who do sex work and like rough sex. Poppy doesn’t see the former as degrading, and she states explicitly that her desire for the latter is not a result of trauma. She’s autonomous and lucid; her choices reflect her desires, not somebody else’s.

As Poppy cares about Tyler, she doesn’t want to hurt him, which subverts the “temptress”/“femme fatale” relationship. Her goal isn’t to seduce Tyler, nor does she want to have a fatal influence on his career. To prevent further harm, Poppy stages the kiss between her and Sterling. Tyler thinks that his destiny is with Poppy, but Poppy thinks that his fate is to remain a priest. Once she sees Tyler at the church near the end of the novel, she realizes that she was wrong. Through Tyler, Poppy develops a sincere relationship with God, and in the end, she has both Tyler and God.

Sterling is the antagonist and poses a tangible threat to Tyler. All along, Tyler fears punishment. Until Sterling, his worries are abstract and mostly concern intangible spiritual consequences from God. With Sterling’s threat of releasing the photos he took of Tyler and Poppy, Tyler finally becomes subject to material harm. The story needs Sterling to raise the stakes and bring Tyler and Poppy out of their bubble.

Like Tyler, Sterling is described as attractive, but Sterling lacks Tyler’s compassion and thoughtfulness. Tyler describes Sterling as “absurdly confident, confident to the point of hubris” (331). He’s arrogant and demeaning. Tyler treats Poppy like a person, but Sterling views her as an object. At the same time, he’s not a pure villain. Poppy says, “Yes, he did bad things, but it’s not like he’s a psychopath. He’s just a spoiled boy who’s never had anyone say no to him” (370). When Tyler meets Sterling in New York, Sterling is jovial. He gives Tyler expensive scotch and refers to him as “old sport,” conveying that Sterling isn’t excessively toxic.

Millie is a sidekick. Her official role is the church bookkeeper, but she’s more of a general assistant. Once Tyler goes viral, Millie takes over the church. She’s an older woman; like Poppy, she’s empowered. She was one of Missouri’s first female engineers. More so, she’s an independent thinker who’s not squeamish about cursing. She’s the first person to find out about Tyler and Poppy’s relationship, and she supports it. She counters the anti-sex attitudes of Christianity, repeatedly telling Tyler that there’s nothing sinful about his relationship. She’s an ally; however, her acceptance doesn’t put Tyler at ease.

Like Tyler and Sterling, Jordan is attractive. Jordan is Tyler’s priest, so Jordan gives Tyler someone, aside from Poppy, to talk to about the conflict between sexuality and being a priest. Tyler also presents Jordan as his foil. Tyler is unsettled, but Jordan is stable; Tyler characterizes Jordan as a staunch traditionalist. Tyler says, “He lived like a medieval monk, a life almost completely and totally devoted to prayer” (302). His deeply spiritual life doesn’t exclude compassion. When Tyler wonders if Jordan hates him, Jordan replies, “You know I don’t. You know God doesn’t either” (308). As with Millie, Jordan isn’t anti-sex. He, too, is a sympathetic ally.