Characters

Main Characters

Gemma: Gemma is a young teenage girl, in the beginning of the story. She is fourteen years old and dating Tar on a lark. She doesn't love him, but prefers spending time with him instead of her parents. She believes her parents place undue restrictions on her.

Tar: Tar is also fourteen years old at the beginning of the novel. His parents aren't as innocuous as Gemma's. His mother is an alcholic and his father is abusive. It's a volatile mix that often finds him in the middle. Tar comes to believe that he must run away for his own safety.

Skolly: Skolly is a well-meaning store owner who befriends Tar when he first arrives in Bristol. He finds ways to give items, such as candy bars, to those in need, without making it look like charity. His morals may be remiss, but his intentions are not. Skolly sees good qualities in Tar and connects him with Richard.

Richard: Richard heads a squatting movement, membered primarily by teenagers. Richard believes it to be a social movement and takes squatting quite seriously. Always on the look-out for new squats and new squatters, Richard sets Tar up with Vonny and Jerry in a newly assumed building.

Vonny: Vonny is an older teenager. She is eighteen at the beginning of the novel and befriends Tar as he joins their squat. She has motherly instincts in regards to the younger teenagers, a quality that frustrates Gemma as she attempts to find herself in a new life without rules.

Lily: A runaway from an early age, Lily has less experience than any of the teens with responsibility. Forced to take care of herself from a young age, she has convinced herself that she prefers a life without repercussions.