Penny

Penny is the main character of the novel. Her parents are Norm and Amalia Baker. She also has older two half-brothers, Matt and Patrick. As a child, Penny grows up with her family in Morristown, New Jersey. Because her mother is detached, and largely apathetic, and her brothers are decades older than her, Penny feels closest to her father. When he gets sick, she devotes herself entirely to his care. Though there is little she can do to aid his condition, she visits him almost daily at the hospital. She does the same when he moves to hospice, and then back home. After his death, she loses her sense of self. Her father's absence makes her feel alone and ungrounded.

In an attempt to distract herself from her grief, she launches into the CHA community through her new friends at Nicotine. Though she originally visited the house where...