Lara

Lara is the main character and first person narrator of the novel. In the narrative present, Lara is 16 years old. She lives with her mother Yevgenia. Because Yevgenia left Lara with various acquaintances and coworkers when she was a child, Lara is inextricably attached to her mother. She knows what it is like to be without her and thus lives in perpetual fear of her mother’s abandonment.

However, when Lara and Yevgenia arrive at their new home at Oasis Mobile Estates in Chapter 1, Lara feels ready to detach herself from her mother and define herself anew. Yevgenia’s restlessness has inspired their peripatetic lifestyle throughout Lara’s childhood. Because moving to this region in California and starting at Canyon Lake High is “the fifth or maybe sixth” transition Lara has had to make “in two years,” she anticipates the inevitable upheaval that will come in the subsequent...