Wild Side

Rhys Dupris is another of the novel’s main characters and first-person narrators. The chapters titled with his first name are written from his first-person perspective and trace episodes from his individual storyline. As is the case with Tabitha’s chapters, Rhys’s chapters offer insight into his interiority and delve into his mode of seeing, processing, and experiencing the world around him.

In the narrative present, Rhys is 35 years old. Like Tabitha, he is self-reliant and isolated. Because he never knew his parents and grew up in the foster care system, Rhys doesn’t have a family on which he can depend. He does his best to get along with his boss Anthony and his colleagues Elle and Will, but they feel more like acquaintances than friends. When he isn’t working or training as a wrestler for World Professional Wrestling, Rhys is working out or spending time alone in his Canadian home.

Everything changes for Rhys when Erika starts renting the apartment on the other side of his Emerald Lake duplex. Rhys connects and sympathizes with Erika and immediately assumes an important role in her life. He spends time with her when he’s in town and eagerly accepts her requests to help care for Milo. Although he sees Erika as a friend, he isn’t interested in her romantically and hopes that they can maintain a friendly connection despite Erika’s erratic behavior. He’s devastated when he discovers that Erika has died from a drug overdose and has to bear witness to Tabitha’s grief.

Through Rhys, the novel suggests that one shouldn’t judge individuals based on their appearance. On the exterior, Rhys is a steely, intimidating individual. Because of his wrestling career, he has an imposing figure and physique. On the inside, however, Rhys is soft-hearted, gentle, and kind. He is empathetic and humble, and he puts others’ needs before his own. This is particularly evident at the start of his relationship with Tabitha. He immediately recognizes that Tabitha’s anger is a manifestation of her grief, as he is familiar with loss and knows its intricacies. He decides to let her direct her frustration at him even though he isn’t at fault for Erika’s death. In this way, the novel shows that he is a good man and a worthy partner. He also puts Milo’s needs before his own: he agrees to marry Tabitha to offer Milo more consistency and to honor Erika’s wishes.

At the same time, Rhys struggles to be vulnerable with others. He hides his career and buries his feelings. Because of his tumultuous upbringing, he lives in constant fear of abandonment. He convinces himself that if he doesn’t form connections with others he can avoid disappointment and hurt. He learns otherwise with Tabitha. Her love and acceptance compel him to open up about his past and to reveal his sorrows and insecurities, his hopes and longings.

He therefore proves himself to be a dynamic character capable of change. The narrative suggests that love and connection can incite transformation.

Erika is a secondary character. Because she dies in Chapter 2, her character only appears in one scene in Chapter 1, which is temporally set two years prior to the narrative present. However, she impacts the other characters even in her absence. Her lies inform Tabitha and Rhys’s misperceptions about one another and propel the enemies-to-lovers narrative. The novel also illuminates Tabitha and Rhys’s natures through their relationship to Erika. Tabitha is revealed to have been a protective older sister, and Rhys a compassionate friend.

Erika is complex. In spite of her lies, she is not portrayed as a bad person. As Tabitha explains to Rhys at the novel’s start, Erika is “a girl who got injured playing volleyball in high school and was prescribed something she shouldn’t have” (7). In the years since, Erika has had different emotional seasons. “She’s been low. Really low,” but when she moves into Rhys’s apartment she feels healthier, has “gotten help,” and proves herself to be “a good mom” to her young son Milo (7). However, Tabitha continues to worry for Erika. She is protective of her because she’s afraid of losing her and because no one else in Erika’s life has stayed by her side.

Erika’s private journals provide insight into her character. Throughout the majority of the novel, Tabitha and Rhys have fixed impressions of Erika. Tabitha sees her as her imperfect, but beautiful older sister. She never blames Erika for her addiction and sees her as a victim of circumstances. Rhys similarly understands that Erika lives with an inarticulable sadness and relates to her struggles because of his own difficult past. Rhys also sympathizes with Erika because she tells him that her parents have disowned her and that Tabitha is overbearing, selfish, and unreliable.

After Tabitha and Rhys read Erika’s journals in the months following her death, they discover a different side of Erika. Her personal writings reveal that when Erika was using drugs, she became increasingly insecure, manipulative, and deceptive. For example, Erika fabricated stories about Tabitha to make Rhys sympathize with her. She also lied to Tabitha to make her believe Rhys had hurt her and that her financial struggles weren’t her fault. Furthermore, she named Rhys as Milo’s legal guardian in her will to punish her sister for always having the “better” life and to secure Milo’s future with a man who had money.

Despite these revelations, Tabitha and Rhys don’t hold any bitterness toward her, further illuminating their benevolent natures. Erika’s journals help them understand that Erika was alone and needed help and love. By the end of the novel, both Tabitha and Rhys also feel grateful to Erika. They attribute their relationships with each other and with Milo to Erika. They are also able to say goodbye to her in the novel’s closing scenes without sorrow because they know that Erika is now in a better place absent of pain.