Releasing 10

Hugh is the other protagonist and point-of-view character in Releasing 10. He is one year older than Lizzie and has a little sister, Claire. He is a rugby player, eventually joining the Tommen College team, an avid swimmer who becomes a lifeguard because of the drowning death of his friend Gibsie’s father. Lizzie describes Hugh as extremely attractive: tall with blonde curly hair and “brown [eyes] like the color of [her] daddy’s whiskey” (64).

Hugh is portrayed as both academically and emotionally intelligent. He excels in school, with plans to attend college in Dublin after he graduates from Tommen. He and Lizzie bond over their love of books. At a young age, Hugh takes pride in his handwriting and vocabulary; in school, he works hard to be at the top of his class. He also has a precocious grasp of Lizzie’s mental health, providing her with key support that calms down her fluctuating moods. When his parents and Lizzie’s parents insist that he is too young to understand bipolar disorder, Hugh takes it upon himself to research the condition in the library.

Hugh changes in the course of the novel. After experiencing The Benefits and Burdens of Commitment, he realizes that he cannot devote his entire life to helping Lizzie at the cost of relationships with his friends, or his interest in rugby and swimming. At first, because his presence helps Lizzie, Hugh is willing to put her needs above his own. He spends an entire summer at Lizzie’s house when she struggles to go outside and pulls away from Gibsie because of the conflict between him and Lizzie. However, after Lizzie breaks Hugh’s trust, Hugh sees that their relationship is damaging him. Although he still loves her, their breakup allows him to restart his friendship with Gibsie, focus on rugby, and even begin a new romance with Katie. This restorative breakup in turn allows Hugh to posit that he and Lizzie will eventually become friends.

Mark is the primary antagonist in the novel. He becomes Gibsie’s stepbrother after Mark’s father, Keith, marries Gibsie’s mother. Mark’s exact age is not specified, but he graduates from high school partway through the text and is thus six or seven years older than Lizzie and Hugh.

Mark is a one-dimensional, archetypal villain. Mark is an unrepentant sexual predator who rapes Lizzie for years, convincing her that this will somehow improve her mental health. When a 10-year-old Lizzie becomes pregnant as the result, Mark performs a horrific abortion on her. Lizzie also has flashes of memory that imply that Mark sexually abused Gibsie, which is confirmed in the series novel Taming 7 (see Background), and possibly even murdered Caoimhe. When Mark returns home from college, he violently rapes a now teenage Lizzie.

Mark is a flatly monstrous villain who always convinces the adults in Lizzie’s life to believe that he is a good person. This means that no one protects any of his victims, and that the police cannot find evidence to link him to Caoimhe’s death.

Gibsie is a secondary character who begins the novel as one of Lizzie and Hugh’s good friends. Gibsie is portrayed as carefree and happy, projecting a jovial front even as grieves the deaths of his father and younger sister. Gibsie has a strained relationship with his mother, especially after she marries Mark’s father, Keith. Gibsie often turns to siblings Claire and Hugh for support, spending weeks at a time living in their home.

After Caoimhe’s death, Gibsie becomes a secondary antagonist because of his failure to support Lizzie’s claim that Mark was involved. In the Boys of Tommen novel Taming 7, readers learn that Mark sexually abused Gibsie for years. Before Caoimhe dies, she writes a note to Gibsie, imploring him to go to the police to protect himself and Lizzie. However, Gibsie is terrified that coming forward would only increase Mark’s abuse, so he chooses to keep it a secret, thereby causing no one to believe Lizzie’s accusations. As a result, a furious Lizzie often verbally assaults him in the series.

Gibsie is a sympathetic character who exemplifies The Complexities of Trauma and Healing; he fails Lizzie because of the impact of abuse on his sense of self.