Corey Goltz

Corey is the protagonist of the novel. He is the son of Gloria Goltz and Leonard Agoglia, born in the 1990s. Corey lives with his mom and they have an itinerant lifestyle through his childhood before settling in Quincy in 2007. Through his childhood, Corey idolizes Leonard, who is less of a fatherly presence and more like an uncle. Leonard professes to be a physics genius who works at MIT. Soon after Gloria’s diagnosis, though, Corey begins to suspect his father’s grandeur. Corey focuses less on school and social life and more on his mother as her condition worsens.

Corey forms a friendship with a boy around his age, Adrian Reinhardt. Adrian is brilliant and dedicated to maintaining his physique, but solely for the purpose of self-betterment rather than for social purposes; he in fact takes pride in having a discomforting presence. Corey’s friendship with...