Lee is Ellie's on-again-off-again love interest throughout the series. He is a somewhat enigmatic character, and despite the fact that Ellie spends long hours obsessing over him, the reader learns very little about his character. The reader learns that he is tall, physically strong, calm in the face of violence, and a silent brooder. Prior to the war Lee had been a studious, somewhat lonely boy who played the violin. When the war broke out, however, Lee demonstrated an aptitude for violence as well as a tendency to act impulsively and a strong desire for vengeance. All this had been heightened when Lee unceremoniously found out that his parents had been killed by the enemy. Since then, Lee has lost the desire to return home that has motivated the rest of the teenagers. The only emotion fueling his actions now is a desperation for revenge. Now, Lee is somewhat of a loose cannon, starting solo missions without the group's consent and sneaking off in the middle of the night, endangering the lives of his friends. At the end of the novel, Ellie discovers that Lee has been having an affair with a teenage enemy, and Ellie must save him from the trap the enemy has laid down for him. In the novel's final pages, Lee apologizes for putting Ellie in danger but she is unsure if she will ever be able to forgive him.
