Beautiful Ugly

Abby Goldman is a primary character and one of the novel’s first-person narrators. Abby is a journalist by occupation, and she takes her work seriously and easily becomes invested in the cases she’s investigating. Oftentimes, Grady holds her vocational devotion against her because he’s jealous of her attention. Abby genuinely loves Grady when they first meet and get married. Over time, however, she starts to feel trapped in their marriage. Grady’s love suffocates her and compromises her sense of self. Because Grady doesn’t pay attention to her wants or needs, Abby can’t fully inhabit her true self. She and Grady “are not the same people [they] were when [they] met,” but Grady refuses to notice how they’ve changed (56). As a result, Abby feels isolated in her marriage and desperate for a way out.

Abby is a dynamic character who reveals herself, throughout the novel, to be strong, intelligent, and independent. At the novel’s start, she feels powerless and alone. After she flees London to escape Grady, she remakes herself, starting her life over on the Isle of Amberly. She reconnects with her childhood community, reconciles with the tragedies of her past, and starts to raise a loving family with her new wife Travers Fairlight and baby daughter Holly. These aspects of her life in the present prove that Abby is capable of change. She wanted to leave her husband not only because Grady was obsessive and self-involved, but also because she knew she needed to take care of herself. She exercises her agency to orchestrate her life on her own terms. In short, she follows the recommendation given to her by the Zoltar machine early in the novel: “[D]o what feels right for you” (141). In following her heart and being true to herself, Abby finds happiness through her capacity for reflection, forgiveness, and change.

Abby is also a foil for Grady. Like Grady, she enjoys storytelling and is invested in her work. In every other respect, her character is antithetical to Grady’s. She can distinguish truth from reality, peace from entrapment, and understands The Line Between Love and Obsession. Her more clear-headed narration contrasts with Grady’s and provides perspective on his self-involvement and willful ignorance. At the novel’s start, Abby appears to be a minor, tangential character who only exists to create conflict in Grady’s story. By the novel’s end, she proves to be the real hero of the narrative.

Kitty Goldman is Abby’s godmother and Grady’s literary agent—a relationship brought about with Abby’s help. Because Kitty largely raised Abby on her own, she is the only other person “who thinks about Abby as often as [Grady] do[es]” (13). In the wake of Abby’s disappearance, Grady regards Kitty as a confidant, friend, and ally. They’ve shared a close working relationship for years, but Kitty is also grieving Abby’s unresolved fate.

Kitty is a powerful, self-possessed, and protective character. She is Abby’s archetypal guide. Kitty’s love and protectiveness lead her to vow to destroy Grady after Abby tells her what he did, a maternal role she has played since Abby was a little girl. She has worked well with Grady because Grady’s publications have made money, but their working relationship can never trump Kitty’s love for her goddaughter. Kitty is the mastermind behind Grady’s ultimate fate. Like the islanders, she wants to avenge Abby and does everything in her power to toy with Grady and to punish him for hurting Abby. Her devotion to her goddaughter offers another representation of unconditional love and contrasts with Grady’s distorted notions about love.

Sandy MacIntyre lives on the Isle of Amberly, where she works as the ferrywoman and police chief. Grady meets her when he first travels to Scotland and regards her as a guide, confidante, and friend. Sandy seems strange to him, but he appreciates her willingness to drive him to the cabin and tell him about the island’s history. When he questions her intentions, he reminds himself that it isn’t “many people who would invite a stranger to dinner in this day and age” and that it “was a kind thing for Sandy to do” (76). Sandy does go out of her way to introduce Grady to island life. She has specific rules and principles she doesn’t want Grady to break but largely offers him help.

Sandy is an important figure in the Isle of Amberly community. The other 24 islanders trust her judgment and rely on her to take care of them. She is a self-possessed and strong-willed character who only shows emotion when she visits Darkside Cave to remember her daughter Isla. Like the other islanders, Sandy has experienced significant trauma and has tried to remake her life on Amberly to heal from it. Although Grady ultimately comes to see Sandy as his enemy, Sandy protects Abby and helps avenge her.

Cora Christie owns and operates Christie’s Corner Shop, which doubles as a bodega and a post office for the small local population. She helps Grady whenever he visits her shop and makes him bog myrtle tea. However, Grady gets a bad feeling from Cora, a reaction supported by the revelation that the tea she’s been giving him is known to cause hallucinations, contributing to his difficulties instead of ameliorating them. After reading one of Abby’s old articles, he begins to wonder if she is Coraline Thatcher—a woman recently released from prison after serving time for a crime she didn’t commit. He later confirms this notion.

Cora is another fixture in the Isle of Amberly community. She is on the Trust and is committed to protecting the island’s women-only society. She is often suspicious of Grady’s behavior because she knows what he did to Abby and is eager to get revenge on him.

Although Charles Whittaker died by suicide before the narrative present, he does not appear in the novel. However, his presence haunts Grady’s narrative because Grady is staying in his old writing cabin. Grady is also obsessed with Charles because he envies Charles’s illustrious writing career. Charles was not only a bestselling author but a prolific writer. Grady wants to live up to Charles’s standards and feels burdened by his legacy while residing on The Edge. He steals Charles’s last unpublished manuscript to remake himself as a writer. This decision captures Grady’s desperation to be like Charles and his willingness to commit crimes to do so.

Charles was married to Kitty Goldman, and they had a healthy marital and working relationship for many years. Charles agreed to move to Amberly with Kitty when she returned to nurse her ailing mother on her deathbed. He grew attached to island life because he always loved peace and quiet to write. However, he grew increasingly detached from Kitty over time, which harmed their marriage. His self-involvement and obsessive writing habits also kept him from helping Abby when she needed him most. His decision to die by suicide was a symptom of his guilt and shame over the deaths of the island children. These aspects of his character echo aspects of Grady’s character. His life is a cautionary tale for Grady, which Grady ignores.