Adalyn is Beckett’s college roommate, best friend, foil, and alleged antagonist. Beckett’s parents present Beckett as “a total wild child” (16), but the label corresponds more accurately to Adalyn. Beckett is adventurous yet cautious; she’s not reckless or excessively dramatic like Adalyn. Beckett explains, “I was drawn to the very thing that made my mother wary—Adalyn was exciting. Someone who raised the stakes in any room” (186). What pulls Beckett to Adalyn is Adalyn’s contrasting traits.

Adalyn’s daring creates the central incident that propels the plot: She challenges Charlie and Micah to the game of darts, she vandalizes Charlie’s truck, she wants to trap them in the tunnels, she sets the old president’s house on fire, she vanishes, and she returns. Adalyn isn’t the main character, yet she propels the series of calamities that alter Beckett’s life. Adalyn never faces legal consequences but loses her privileged, carefree life. Beckett says, “Delilah must’ve been such a stark reminder of what she’d missed out on, what she’d lost. The freedom she’d traded” (502). Beckett believes that Adalyn bullies Delilah and harasses her via the FordGroup as a way to punish Beckett for retaining her upper-middle-class life.

In reality, Adalyn isn’t Beckett and Delilah’s antagonist; she’s not a villain. Instead, Adalyn redeems herself by saving Delilah. When she realizes that Bryce (and possibly Violet) are harassing Delilah, Adalyn assumes the role of Delilah’s watchdog. As Beckett puts it, “Maybe she noticed Bryce following my daughter. Maybe she wasn’t after Delilah herself. Maybe she was trying to find out who this kid was. Maybe she was trying to protect Delilah. Maybe she felt she owed me something after all” (512). Like Beckett, Adalyn embraces selflessness. She, however accidentally, sacrifices her life to save Delilah and demonstrates her allegiance to Beckett. Doc once deems Adalyn a “dangerous narcissist,” but Adalyn’s defense of Delilah calls her motivations into question. Like Beckett, she remains a morally gray character.

Delilah Bowery is Beckett’s 18-year-old daughter. Delilah isn’t a static or flat character; Miranda gives her nuances. She’s a “theater kid” who wants independence from her mother, whom she feels is babying her. Proving her self-reliance, Delilah gets lost in the woods and makes it back on her own. She also tries to handle the bullying on her own before Beckett gets involved. Her desire to make independent decisions free from Beckett’s influence allows for uncertainty in her storyline, unexplained events or absences that increase the sense of mystery in the narrative and make Beckett suspect that Delilah herself could have something to do with the unrest at the college.

Nonetheless, Delilah remains unformed, and her presence is mostly a plot device. Due to Delilah, Beckett returns to Wyatt College and faces her secrets. Bryce harasses Delilah not because of any character traits specific to her but because she’s Beckett’s daughter. Delilah’s disquieting first two months at college aren’t due to anything she did: It’s what Beckett did. Delilah exists in Beckett’s shadow and suffers from Beckett’s secretive history, so her character acts as the primary vehicle for the theme of Confronting Truths Versus Perpetuating Secrets.

Violet and Beckett attended the same high school when Violet was a senior and Beckett was a freshman. Unaware of Violet’s history, Beckett doesn’t suspect her, and Violet doesn’t give Beckett cause to be suspicious. Violet is cooperative and supportive. She video calls Bryce to ask him about the night that Delilah got lost, and she embraces Beckett when she realizes Delilah is back and safe. As Violet turns out to be Beckett and Delilah’s antagonist, she’s deceitful. She hides her deadly ambitions, and she presents her murderous plan as righteous, telling Beckett, “I’ve learned that justice sometimes takes time” (537). In other words, Beckett helped kill her romantic partner and Bryce’s father, so Violet has the right to kill her, a belief that touches on The Subjective Nature of Justice.

Bryce is Violet’s 19-year-old son, and Beckett immediately suspects Bryce since she spots him coming out of the woods. As with Delilah, Bryce’s character lacks development. He, too, is a product of his mother’s history. Unlike Delilah, Bryce isn’t passive. The lack of justice gives his family a grudge, which he keeps by harassing Delilah and, presumably, “pranking” Delilah at the quarry. Instead, Adalyn appears and “accidentally” falls. Whether Adalyn’s death is truthfully an accident or not, Violet helps Bryce move the body, so Bryce and Violet both become antagonists. Their dual sense of injury and vengeance supports the theory that they worked together to bully Delilah, so they’re the characters behind the FordGroup.