When the Wolf Comes Home

The character referred to as “the boy” throughout most of the novel is a secondary protagonist. His birth name is revealed in Chapter 19 to be Peter Calvert, Jr. Cassidy’s choice to avoid using the boy’s birth name in the narration gives the boy an abstract quality, which resonates with the fairy-tale motifs that he deploys throughout the novel. His abstraction is bolstered by his ignorance of his biographical details and the world around him, suggesting that he has been plucked out of one world and placed into Jess’s.

The boy has the ability to manifest his ideas into reality. The power is triggered by intense emotions, which is why his power often activates in moments of fear. Later in the novel, however, the boy can trigger his power using other emotions, like joy. The boy does this while drawing puppies and finding joy in the activity of drawing.

The boy initially functions as an objective in the narrative, as Jess and Calvert Sr. struggle for possession of the boy. For as long as Jess can protect the boy from his father, she has the upper hand over Calvert. On the other hand, if Calvert reclaims the boy, Jess will end up injured or dead, as many other people in the narrative who cross paths with the creature end up massacred.

The boy’s narrative function shifts in Part 2, when he starts to show more agency and expresses his disapproval with some of Jess’s actions. Some of the chapters now appear from the boy’s perspective, showing how he reacts to his developing notions of morality. One thing the boy learns from Jess is that nothing is ever purely “good” or “bad.” When Jess explains that she must sometimes do bad things, like lying, in order to ensure a good outcome, like their protection, she frames her actions as being “complicated.” This sticks in the boy’s mind, especially as he tries to reconcile his father’s claim that he is inherently “bad” with his capacity for good. The boy is also haunted by his father’s assertion that, because he is supposedly bad, he is too bad to live.

The boy’s backstory further illustrates the reasons for his complicated self-image. Sometime in the past, the boy used his power to create a friend out of shadows, making up for his lack of social contact while in seclusion. Calvert forced the boy to watch him kill the boy’s friend, an act of violent abuse that deeply traumatized the boy. The boy’s fear of his father’s anger foreshadows the threat that Calvert poses to the boy’s own life, with the boy’s ability to transform his father into a literal monster—the creature—through his fear physically embodying the threat of parental violence that Calvert represents.

The boy’s death is the realization of his worst fears. Having come to accept the moral complexity of the world around him, the boy chooses to look past his fear of his father and return to him out of love. When Calvert uses this reconciliation as an opportunity to kill the boy, it proves that the boy had been right to fear him all along. Jess points this truth out to Calvert before killing him to avenge the boy’s death.

Calvert is the primary antagonist of the novel. Formerly a sergeant in the military, Calvert turned into a fugitive when he rescued his son from military experimentation. Calvert had volunteered for Project Albatross, an experiment intended to augment the abilities of soldiers in combat. Though Calvert never manifested the expected abilities, they manifested in his son, who could affect reality in terrifying ways. It is implied that Calvert’s wife died in labor because the experience of birth caused their son to trigger his ability for the first time.

The boy’s unexpected abilities drive an overwhelming sense of fear in Calvert. Although he succeeded in hiding his son from the law, he struggled to control his son’s power as he grew up. This is why he chose to take a stern approach to raising the boy; he believed that if he could discourage the boy from using his power through negative reinforcement, he could minimize the boy’s destructive impact on the world. Calvert regards everything that the boy creates with fear, especially the friend he made out of shadow. Calvert forced his son to watch him kill the friend, but this only had the effect of making the boy think that he is dangerous and bad.

Calvert is occasionally transformed into terrifying creatures. Some of his forms include a wolf, bear, and spider. At one point, he turns into a cloud made entirely of mouths. Jess initially assumes that this is Calvert’s natural ability. However, it becomes clear that Calvert’s transformations are a manifestation of the boy’s powers. The boy turns Calvert into wolves and other creatures because he fears his father to the same degree.

At the end of Part 2, Calvert considers dying by suicide to stop himself from transforming and hurting more people. He worries, however, that the boy’s power will only bring him back to life, making him incapable of stopping the boy. The fact that he kills the boy because he sees it as the only way to stop his powers ultimately validates the boy’s fear of him.

Cookie is Jess’s mother and her primary source of support. When Santos looks through Jess’s social media accounts, he doesn’t find many pictures of Jess with her peers. Instead, Cookie appears to be her most prominent social contact. Cookie has continued to support Jess during her move to Los Angeles.

Cookie is an outgoing person. The first time Jess tries to contact her in the novel, she is unable to reach Cookie because she is at a party. Cookie has been in several marriages by the time the novel begins. The inheritance from the death of her last husband, George, allowed her to move into Sky Blue Senior Freedom Residences, an upscale retirement home. Despite her extroverted personality, Cookie feels like an outsider at Sky Blue. Many of her peers come from monied families, while Cookie only recently came into wealth. While she likes the social life around Sky Blue, she also hates the branding around its residence because of its implications on her age.

Cookie and Jess have a combative dynamic. Although they often argue with one another, their bickering is presented as a form of love between them, which even the boy is able to recognize from listening to them fight. Out of concern for Jess, Cookie withholds Tommy’s address from her, wishing to avoid triggering Jess’s emotions and fears of abandonment. She eventually sends Jess to the cabin in Pennsylvania where Tommy resided before he died. While Jess is upset by discovering what Cookie knew and did not share, Cookie’s dying plea for Jess not to hate her reinforces that Cookie was trying to spare Jess from further pain.