Bug

Bug is the main character and narrator of the novel. She is a girl who has always felt uncomfortable with her own body, but she does not recognize she is transgender until her uncle’s ghost returns to guide her to that realization.

Bug often notes that she imagines how a female character in a book might act and patterns her behavior after the examples she finds in books. She also senses that her face does not match who she really is. It is only after Uncle Roderick comes to Bug in a dream and shaves her head that Bug recognizes herself as a boy.

Uncle Roderick

Uncle Roderick was Bug’s uncle. The novel opens with his death. He was Bug’s mother’s brother. Roderick was homosexual. He dated men and sometimes dressed in drag.

Before Uncle Roderick died, he sensed that Bug was suffering with...