Mickey

Mickey is the main character of the novel. At the novel’s start, Mickey is working at Wave. Roughly a year prior to the narrative present, Mickey is hired by “Wave’s former editor in chief Lily,” to “do her thing, which she’d deciphered to mean write about Black issues” (27, Denton-Hurst’s italics). However, ever since Lily left the company and was replaced by Nina, Mickey has been unable to write the sort of stories she wants to write. Furthermore, she is marginalized and disregarded. Although she constantly fears that her job is in jeopardy, she is not really expecting to be let go from the company.

In Chapter 3, after she loses the job for allegedly failing to complete tasks, Mickey realizes that “If she was being perfectly honest, she hadn’t expected it . . . She was a hot commodity: lesbian, Black, well-spoken. She never said no to...