The Girl Before

Emma is one of the central characters of the novel and is quickly revealed to be a fairly unreliable narrator, even when describing her own thoughts and feelings. She displays emotionally maladjusted behaviors, including anorexia and “pseudologia fantastica” (247), constructing a whole world based on lies. Much of the novel’s plot centers on Emma’s death, although her own descriptions primarily focus on her relationships with men and her traumatic experience of being robbed at knifepoint.

Since Emma’s lies aren’t revealed until close to her death, Delaney makes Emma seem weak and vulnerable. In Emma’s early interactions with other characters, she struggles to express herself or be assertive. Emma often gets extremely emotional in order to avoid talking about something unpleasant. She cries multiple times when interviewed by the police, and when things begin to get more heated between her and Edward, Emma describes herself as “timid” (91). Despite Emma’s attempts to create a vulnerable persona, her manipulative behavior is established as a pattern early on in the novel. She frequently thinks about how to behave around people, especially men, in order to get them to look at her in a certain way.

Emma’s lies eventually cause her life to fall apart, losing both friendships and romantic relationships.