The Stillwater Girls

Nicolette is the story’s second narrator and protagonist. Kent uses the contrast between Nic’s outwardly perfect life—her wealth, social status, loving husband, and luxurious home—and her internal certainty that something is very wrong to catalyze her search for the truth about her past—one of the narrative’s central plot engines. As the heiress to a hotel empire with a substantial trust fund, Nic has access to all the resources Wren lacks. She has no need to work and spends her time traveling with her husband and socializing. Yet, like Wren, she’s haunted by vague half-memories from the past that signal all is not as it seems, pushing her to find answers. When the narrative opens, Nic has no conscious memory of her recent past, making her an unreliable narrator of her own story. Though she has a recurring dream about looking down to see an empty stroller, she believes this is a sign of grief over her inability to carry children. Her husband, parents, and friends all cooperate in allowing her to repress memories of the birth of her child, her postpartum psychosis, and giving away her baby to a woman in the park, highlighting the novel’s thematic exploration of The Distinction Between Manipulation and Protection.

Kent centers Nic’s journey on her futile attempts to assemble the pieces of her own past, consistently resulting in wrong conclusions and misunderstandings, until the appearance of Wren and Sage provide her with the clues she needs to unlock the truth. Nic’s lack of knowledge about critical events from her past causes her to misjudge Brant’s actions and motivations and misinterpret his character. For example, she suspects Brant of cheating on her, preferring to investigate and gather information before confronting him. She’s perseverant and determined to learn the truth about her husband, even if it means learning something painful about her marriage. Despite her past trauma and the gaps in her memory, she trusts her own instincts. She takes in Wren and Sage knowing nothing about them, demonstrating a compassionate and generous nature with strong maternal instincts, going to great lengths to ease Wren’s and Sage’s transition into life in the modern world and showing real sensitivity to Evie’s needs when they are finally reunited.

Sage is raised as Wren’s younger sister by Maggie Sharp—the woman they both believe is their mother. Although Sage is only about a year younger than Wren, she depends on her for protection, comfort, and guidance, looking to her as a second mother figure. Her arrested development emphasizes the novel’s thematic interest in The Psychological Impact of Extreme Isolation. At 18, Sage still turns to a doll for comfort in stressful situations. She does not take responsibilities seriously in the way that Wren does, forgetting to stoke the fire before bedtime, for instance. She talks about making candy and playing checkers while Wren is struggling to keep them from starving or freezing to death in the cabin. Her childlike naivete and sweet, timid nature serve as a foil for Wren, showing that, despite their identical backgrounds and circumstances, the two young women are distinctly different in personality.

These psychological differences are reinforced by the physical differences between the two: while Wren is fair-haired and has a rounded face, Sage has dark hair and delicate features—differences that foreshadow the reveal that they are not biologically related.

Maggie Sharp is the woman who kidnapped Felicity and Emma, renamed them Wren and Sage, and raised them in extreme isolation on a primitive homestead in the woods. Although she never appears in scene in the novel’s present, Maggie’s recent absence from the homestead sets the stage for Wren and Sage’s escape from the homestead and discovery of the wider world. The novel’s climax reveals Maggie as the woman who accepted baby Hannah from Nic, who was experiencing postpartum psychosis, renaming this child Evie and adding her to the ersatz family. Although Maggie functions as one of the novel’s antagonists, she’s already dead (unbeknownst to Wren and Sage) when the story begins. As Kent’s narrative unfolds, she makes clear that Maggie’s past actions sit at the center of the crises that both Wren and Nic unravel over the course of the story. Kent nuances her portrayal of Maggie by contextualizing her actions in Maggie’s own grief over the deaths of her husband and child. Kent portrays Maggie as a person frightened by the complexity and chaos of the modern world and, accordingly, she retreats into nature and a simpler lifestyle. While Maggie’s kidnaps Wren, Sage, and Evie and lies to them about the outside world to keep them isolated and under her control, Kent implies that Maggie genuinely sees the outside world as a terrible place full of crime, disease, and other dangers from which she believes she is protecting herself and her kidnapped daughters.

Through the character of Maggie, Kent explores the distinctions between manipulation and protection, love and abuse. Wren mentions early in the story that Maggie often told her how much she resembled Imogen, Maggie’s deceased daughter, suggesting that Maggie kidnapped her first victim—Wren—as a replacement for Imogen. In the years that follow, Maggie makes a determined effort to raise Wren, Sage, and Evie with love and care. Under difficult circumstances, she finds a way to provide for both their physical and emotional needs. When Wren thinks of her childhood, she recalls games, songs, cuddles, and stories by the fire. When Evie is sick, Maggie takes a real risk to try to save her. Kent makes clear that Maggie is a kidnapper and a liar but also provides the children with love and care. However, the lies she tells and the lines she crosses leave Wren and Sage to reckon with the trauma of their isolation and the impact of her deception when they eventually escape the confines of the homestead and re-enter the wider world.

Brant is Nic’s husband of many years. He is a highly-regarded photographer whose art consumes much of his attention, but he is also a loving and attentive husband who feels bad when his work distracts him from his wife’s needs. Brant had a difficult childhood, with abusive parents and a series of foster care placements. His only positive childhood memories involve his activities with his younger brother, Davis, making it particularly difficult for Brant to cut Davis off when, as an adult, Davis consistently manipulates Brant and Nic and betrays their trust—eventually even kidnapping their lost daughter and extorting money from them. Because of his own difficult familial relationships, Brant is particularly close to Nic’s parents and considers her father one of his best friends. Kent characterizes him as a loyal person who stands by his wife in exceptionally difficult circumstances and who never gives up looking for his missing child.

Although for much of the story Nic’s narration paints Brant as an antagonist who is cheating on her and keeping suspicious secrets from her, Kent’s plot twists ultimately reveal Brant as a loving husband who is simply trying to do what is right for his wife in a confusing situation. His decision to keep Hannah’s birth and disappearance a secret from Nic is central to the novel’s thematic examination of the distinction between manipulation and protection.