Helen Conley

Helen is one of the novel’s narrators. The novel begins with her move from Seattle to Appalachian Ohio at the age of thirty-one and ends when Helen is in her late thirties. She has a college degree but spends the majority of her time working on her property which she bought with her uncle’s trust fund money. She also gets work felling trees with Rudy, her boss and later lover. Karen and Lily note that Helen talks a lot, gives unsolicited advice, and often feels that she has to be in charge of everything.

Helen is a transplant from middle class urban west coast life to rural Appalachia, resulting in conflicts with her working-class counterparts Lily and Karen. Karen often derides Helen’s book-based learning in favor of Karen’s own lived experience. Helen’s immediate desire to latch on to Karen and Lily as...