Woman Down

Petra is the novel’s protagonist and point-of-view character. She is a 34-year-old successful author navigating both professional scrutiny and personal dissatisfaction. Married to Shephard, with two young children, Petra appears outwardly steady, grounded in domestic routine and public acclaim for her writing. She is known for a popular book series that has earned her fame and wealth but also intense fan scrutiny and criticism that she struggles to manage, illustrating The Negative Effects of Popularity and Fame. Her decision to retreat to a cabin to work on her latest book is the novel’s inciting incident, as she hopes the solitude and peace will allow her to complete her first novel in over a year and earn back respect from her fans. As the point-of-view character, Petra’s perceptions shape the narrative, filtering events through her anxieties, desires, and rationalizations in alignment with the conventions of the psychological thriller genre. As Petra becomes embroiled in living out the experiences of her own main characters through her relationship with Saint, this limited perspective illustrates how she interprets and often distorts reality to preserve her sense of control and artistic identity, highlighting The Ties Between Ambition and Moral Erosion.

At the start of the novel, Petra is defined by the tension between security and dissatisfaction. Her marriage to Shephard represents comfort and predictability, while her creative life seems increasingly constrained by public opinion and self-doubt. This dissatisfaction motivates her retreat to the cabin, where she seeks solitude and artistic renewal, as well as emotional escape. Petra repeatedly frames her choices as necessary for her work, suggesting that she views creativity as justification for her decisions. This mindset lays the groundwork for her vulnerability to Saint: She is not naïve, but she is willing to suspend skepticism if it promises inspiration and productivity in her writing, further emphasizing the theme of the ties between ambition and moral erosion. Her early interactions with Saint reveal a pattern of selective attention, as she ignores inconsistencies in his story and her limited knowledge of him, accepting his intrusions as long as they produce productive bursts in her writing.

As Petra grows closer to Saint, her moral boundaries begin to erode. She repeatedly insists on lines that must not be crossed: She tells the reader she would never have an affair, claims she is only getting close to Saint as “research” for her writing, and is adamant that she will return to her comfortable life with Shephard. However, she allows Saint to approach each boundary incrementally, reframing his actions as part of their “game” or artistic experience while simultaneously being disturbed by his behavior. While Saint is largely responsible for these rationalizations, Petra actively participates in them, distancing herself from the real implications of her choices. Her attraction to Saint is inseparable from her attraction to being seen and understood as an artist rather than a wife or public figure. Slowly, her devolution into allowing Saint to manipulate her life develops the theme of The Blurred Line Between Fantasy and Reality. Petra’s vulnerability stems largely from ambition, as she wants her work to matter deeply, even at her own personal risk. The potential destruction of her life becomes entwined with her desire to live out the experiences of her main character, eventually causing Petra to lose the distinction between the two.

Petra is a dynamic character who changes throughout the course of the text with regard to her career, but her relationship to Saint—and, by extension, writing—remains stagnant. At the start of the novel, Petra goes to the cabin seeking refuge. She has hidden herself from the public eye for over a year, then physically removes herself to isolation in an attempt to write without the criticism of the literary world. However, she learns that this is not the solution to her problem. When she tells her fans during the Q&A that she accepts responsibility for the film and that she is not “infallible,” the novel illustrates how she has changed. She recognizes that negative criticism comes with her popularity and fame, and the solution is acknowledgment and acceptance, rather than seclusion and escape. 

Despite this fact, her continued obsession with Saint as she searches online for his review and thinks of her months after leaving the cabin implies that she will likely return, desiring success with her next novel while wanting to be with Saint again to break up the mundanity of her life. Petra accepts responsibility for her choices intellectually, admitting that she is the one who took things too far, yet she emotionally remains entangled. The final email and cabin reservation underscore this unresolved state, as she has learned but not necessarily changed. She never achieves redemption as she never confronts or apologizes for her transgressions; instead, she seems poised to again rely on Saint to achieve success and avoid harsh criticisms from her fans.