50 pages • 1-hour read
The Ex
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Character Analysis
Cassie
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of suicide.
Cassie is the protagonist of The Ex and the narrator of the “The New Girl” chapters of the novel. She is 26 years old and is described as “sweet, earnest, and pretty in a fresh-faced sort of way” (312). She is characterized by her anxious nature, which manifests in worries about money, her relationship with Joel, and the possibility of being arrested by police.
As the owner of a failing bookstore, Cassie repeatedly expresses anxiety about her finances. She refuses to close the bookstore early for her first date with Joel in the hopes that she’ll have customers, as “she needs the money desperately if there’s any chance of the store not going under” (43). The use of the word desperate in this passage reflects Cassie’s emotional distress regarding her finances. When Joel suggests sushi for their date, Cassie worries that “she can’t afford a sushi dinner. She can barely afford ramen noodles” (47). This anxiety about money appears again later when Cassie prepares to go out to dinner with Joel’s friends Pete and Lydia, and Cassie’s “heart skips a beat when she sees the prices” (231) on the online menu. The prices are even higher at the restaurant, and Cassie “gasps at the dollar figure next to the steak” (232). These passages suggest that Cassie’s anxiety about money has a tangible physical impact on her. Cassie’s financial worries distinguish her from older, more established characters like Joel and Lydia.
Cassie also expresses anxiety about her relationship with Joel throughout the novel. The root of this anxiety is her self-comparison to Francesca, Joel’s ex-girlfriend. Although she knows Joel cares about her, she nevertheless “would bet anything there’s a small part of him that misses her” (131). Meeting Joel’s friends convinces Cassie that she’s “not good enough for Joel, and she’s not good enough to be in their circle” (172). When Cassie begins to suspect that Francesca is responsible for the vandalism at her home and store, she is hesitant to report it to Joel because “she’s really afraid [that] Joel might take Francesca’s side” (181). As these passages suggest, Cassie’s habit of comparing herself to Francesca causes her anxiety throughout the novel.
Finally, Cassie is characterized by her constant anxiety about being arrested for the rare book forgery business her grandfather started. Although she forges and sells books only rarely, she still “can’t shake the feeling that one of these days, the policeman will be coming here with a warrant for her arrest” (151). She feels a “rush of relief every time a police officer leaves her store without snapping handcuffs on her” (180). Cassie’s anxiety about being arrested is designed to mislead the reader into thinking she poses a threat to Joel, her primary love interest.
Joel
Joel is the primary love interest for Cassie, and an important love interest for Anna. He appears in both the “The Ex” and the “The New Girl” chapters of The Ex. He is described as a successful doctor with “pale eyelashes [and] thick brown hair” (13), “perfect, white teeth” (20), “eyes the color of the ocean, and a pretty nice build” (18). Although he is initially depicted as the perfect man, both Cassie and Anna eventually come to realize that he has flaws. Anna originally believes that there is “nobody better” (8) than Joel: “no better doctor. No better man” (8). When Cassie first meets Joel, she believes that he is “too perfect and put-together” (120) to be with her. The use of superlatives in these passages suggests that Joel closely matches the characteristics of idealized masculinity found in many romance novels—he is wealthy, professionally successful, handsome, and seemingly kind—explaining why both Cassie and Anna fall in love with him so quickly.
In the second half of the novel, however, both Cassie and Anna start to have different feelings about Joel as a result of his cruel behavior. On the night of Lydia’s Halloween party, Cassie accidentally wears the same costume as Joel’s ex-girlfriend Francesca. Rather than explaining the similarities, Joel shuts down entirely, and “will barely look at her during the entire ride” (161) to the party. When she tries to hold his hand in the elevator, “he jerks away from her” (161) violently. Joel’s rejection of Cassie and his refusal to explain the mix-up complicates the novel’s earlier depiction of him as the perfect man. He becomes similarly cruel to Anna when she tries to warn him about Francesca’s debt problems. Joel speaks to Anna with “his voice dripping with venom” (268), telling her that she needs “to get the fuck over [their relationship] already” (268). Joel’s cruelty after their breakup causes Anna to realize that he is not the perfect man, freeing her to pursue a relationship with Dean/Con.
Anna
Anna is the narrator of the “The Ex” chapters and an important antagonist in the novel. Her identity as “the Ex” is not revealed until Chapter 49. She is described as being “short and top-heavy with mousy brown curls” (303) and a “sweet […] heart-shaped face” (173). Anna is defined by her changing relationship with Joel. After their breakup, Anna stalks Joel and his new girlfriend Francesca obsessively until she meets Dean (also known as Con), whom she quickly falls for.
As the novel begins, Anna is obsessed with Joel and mourning the end of their relationship. She is unable to accept the fact that she and Joel will “never get back together […] that it’s finally over for good” (30), insisting that “it’s not over” (32) and that she can “still save this” (32). Anna’s obsession with Joel manifests in her use of the fictional WhereAmI app, a location-tracking app that allows her to follow Joel “anywhere he goes via GPS with startling accuracy” (28). When Joel begins dating Francesca, Anna starts stalking her too, following her home from her dates with Joel. Anna admits that “when [Francesca’s] steps quickened and it became clear she was afraid, it energized me” (76), and that she “wanted her to know there are consequences to dating Joel Broder” (76). Anna’s obsession with Joel and jealousy over his new relationship with Francesca guides her behavior throughout most of the novel.
When Anna meets Joel’s friend Constantine (known as “Dean” in “The Ex” chapters and “Con” in “The New Girl” chapters), she begins to let go of her obsession with Joel and Francesca. After meeting Dean, Anna realizes that her “feelings for Joel are more complicated than [she] had thought” (264). She realizes that she never “felt the way about [Joel] that [she] felt about Dean the other night” (265), and that she and Joel “weren’t meant for each other” (306). Anna and Dean eventually marry and have a baby, at which point Cassie meets them. Cassie notices that Anna and Dean are “always staring at each other like they’re the only two people in the world” (208). This shift in Anna’s obsession from Joel to Con/Dean marks a significant change in her characterization, suggesting that it is possible to move on from significant heartbreak and jealousy after a relationship ends.
Francesca
Francesca is a girlfriend of Joel’s and a central antagonist in the minds of both Anna, the woman he dated before Francesca, and Cassie, the woman he dated after her. Although references to Francesca appear in both “The Ex” chapters and “The New Girl” chapters, she is not an active participant in the novel until Chapter 49, when she is confronted by Anna for the first time. For most of the novel, Francesca is depicted as a beautiful, perfect woman—an icon of idealized femininity to match Joel as an icon of idealized masculinity—and neither Cassie nor Anna feels able to compete with her. Eventually, Anna’s obsession with Francesca causes her to believe that Francesca is actually evil, leading Anna to kill her and make it appear as if she died by suicide.
The first time Anna sees Francesca, she describes her as having “flawless olive skin” (64) with “dark hair […] loose and sexy going down her back” (64). Francesca’s beautiful skin tone leads Anna to refer to her by the derisive nickname “Olive.” When Cassie first sees a photo of Francesca, she describes her as “really, really beautiful” (170), having “a perfect body with curves in all the right places” (170). These descriptions of Francesca emphasize her physical beauty, which both Anna and Cassie find deeply intimidating. Cassie is also intimidated by Francesca’s place in the hearts of Joel and his friends, who consider her to be “perfect” (130). Cassie resents the fact that Francesca “occupied Joel’s heart before she did” (130), and that she was “a great cook and better liked by his friends” (130). Throughout the early stages of the novel, both Cassie and Anna build Francesca up in their imaginations as the perfect woman, imagining that Joel and his friends secretly prefer her.
In the final section of the novel, however, Anna’s descriptions of Francesca change dramatically as Anna realizes that Francesca has replaced her in Joel’s life. She describes Francesca’s eyes as “unkind” (299) and her laugh as “a cruel, biting sound” (305). Anna notes that Francesca “never smiles, as far as I’ve seen” (299) and that “there’s something…off about her” (215). Anna believes that Francesca “radiates evil” (299) and that she is “frightening” (303). Despite the fact that Anna has been stalking Francesca, she ultimately determines that she needs “protection against Francesca herself” (303). Anna’s jealousy of Francesca and her paranoia lead her to kill Francesca and make it appear as though Francesca died by suicide. The dramatic change in Francesca’s representation in the final chapters of the novel demonstrates how deeply Anna’s obsession with Joel and Francesca has changed her understanding of the world and the people around her.
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