We Begin at the End

It is difficult sometimes to remember that Duchess Radley is, for most of the book, only 13 years old. She is like an adult in many ways. It is not just her swearing or that she smokes without apology and takes swigs of Jim Beam. She stays distant from others. Her attitude of aggressive confrontation, her willingness to take on the world, and the joy she takes in ridiculing others and pointing out their faults with brutal honesty seem out of place for a child.

Beneath that hard exterior, however, is a complex psychology. Duchess hungers for the validation of others. Her family is in fragments. School friends mock her for her mother’s unconventional lifestyle. She is lonely. Her mother—an alcoholic in perpetual rehab working long hours as an exotic dancer—leaves the house largely to Duchess. As a result, she is fiercely protective of both her mother and her little brother. She fights for them, literally. She sets fire to his strip club when she finds out that Darke punched her mother. When bigger kids pick on Robin on the playground, Duchess risks expulsion to protect him. That aggression is part of the persona she has created. She is, she tells anyone who will listen, an outlaw.