Layla

Layla is a vibrant and dazzling young woman who falls in love with Leeds when he is playing in the band at her sister Aspen's wedding. The first thing Leeds notices about Layla is that she is a terrible dancer. She later tells him that she was dancing crazily at the wedding to cheer him up because he looked sad playing in the band. She could read his expression and see how he felt.

After Sable shoots Layla and she has to be resuscitated, Layla is not her old self. She is no longer vivacious and curious, and she has lost her sense of humor. She is also anxious and depressed and seems to have significant memory loss. She begins to restrict her eating and loses weight. Leeds assumes that these changes are due to her traumatic injury but later realizes that this is not Layla at all, but rather Sable. After Layla and Leeds execute the plan of drowning her so that she can die and be revived with the correct spirit, Leeds knows that the real Layla has been restored when she wakes up and says, “You look like you’re dying inside” (287). That’s what she told him when they first met, and she hadn’t remembered that when Sable was within her.

Since Leeds is the narrator, readers do not get a lot of insight into Layla’s internal life, other than what she or “Willow” tells Leeds. The novel does not reveal her last name, what she does for a living, or what her relationships are like with people other than Leeds and Aspen. Even though the book is named for her, Layla remains enigmatic.

Aspen is Layla’s older sister whose wedding is the event that brought Leeds and Layla together. She is a nurse and is more practical and no-nonsense than Layla. Because of her medical knowledge, she takes a keen interest in Layla’s recovery and administers CPR to Layla when she purposely drowns near the end of the book. Though the reader doesn’t get a lot of information about Aspen, she appears to be a caring and responsible older sister even though she and Layla are very different. She and her husband, Chad, visit Layla and Leeds at the bed-and-breakfast several times during their stay.

Chad Kyle is Aspen’s new husband. He functions as a foil to Leeds, and his relationship with Aspen is a foil to Leeds and Layla’s connection. He is often shown drinking, talking about drinking, or making crass references to sex. Leeds immediately judges Chad because he is the one who booked his band to play at the wedding, but Leeds thinks the band’s music is terrible. From the beginning, Leeds establishes his distaste for Chad, and he describes his intense emotional and physical connection with Layla in contrast to Chad and Aspen’s more shallow relationship.

Sable is a woman whom Leeds previously dated before meeting Layla. After Leeds posts a picture of himself and Layla on social media, Layla starts getting messages from Sable. Leeds is forced to explain that Sable is obsessed with him and has been stalking him. She was the president of his fan club before they began dating. She has a history of mental illness, depression, and eating disorders. At one point, she had to be forcibly removed from some of Leeds’s concerts. After she sees the picture of Leeds and Layla together, she shows up at Leeds’s house and shoots both Layla and Leeds. Leeds takes her gun and shoots her to protect Layla and himself. For a few moments, both Layla and Sable are dead in the same room, which is enough time for their spirits to leave their bodies and switch places. When Layla is revived, she behaves strangely, and it takes Leeds a long time to realize that it’s because Sable’s spirit is inside of her. Her depression, anxiety, and disordered eating manifest in Layla. What Leeds thinks is memory loss is Sable not being able to access Layla’s memories.

Willow is the spirit who is inhabiting the bed-and-breakfast when Leeds and Layla arrive. Willow makes herself known by nearly starting a fire on the stove, cleaning up a broken wineglass, and playing notes on the piano. She doesn’t know her name or who she was before she came to the bed-and-breakfast, but she calls herself Willow. Leeds realizes he can communicate with her by asking questions out loud and having her type answers on his computer. Willow can also inhabit Layla’s body so that she can spend physical time with Leeds.

The more Willow inhabits Layla’s body, the more memories she has of the event that killed her. At first she thinks she might be Sable, but then they realize that she is actually Layla’s spirit. She came back to the bed-and-breakfast when her spirit was first detached from her body.