Was there a specific character that you developed the most sympathy for? Why do you think you felt more connected to them than the others?
I liked Orvil. He still had a sincere quality and he appeared to be the only character that was worried about another character, his grandma.
I would choose Lony, the youngest. Lony had the courage to take action. He left because the older siblings changed radically for the worse over a period of time that he was growing up with them. They did not come together as a family to find strength. Their strength was in their addictions. He likely left for fear of becoming the same. His attempt to reconnect was motivated by a hope that he, a little older then, could try to pull them back together. The others were older and acted out of their own depression or self-pity.
I had a great deal of sympathy for April Viola. We really don’t know very much about her relationship with Charles Star. I was actually surprised when she was pregnant. Finding the deceased body of Charles Star and then hanging him in the tree, while telling her unborn child about its father was heartbreaking. We never really know what happened to her that ultimately led to her death and the ultimate adoption.
She died in giving birth to Victoria (p.93: “Your full name will be Victoria. Your real mother will give you that name, will have said that to your white parents as they helped her through labor, while also helping themselves to you… just as soon as the wet and life in her eyes was gone.”
I too especially liked Opal for her grit and her optimism. I was sorry to learn she died without being able to share her stories and her hope with her daughter. Even sadder that the adoptive parents lied to her about her mother and her heritage.
April’s life was sad and short. She suffered.
Like @Lorraine_D, I felt the most sympathy for Lony. He so wanted to make things better, to be a superhero. Was anyone else convinced he was going to try to “fly” from the water tower? Man, that scene had me stressed!
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It’s gotta be Orvil for me. I grew attached to him and his dancing in There There, then the aftermath and his struggles in Wandering Stars made me feel further connected to him. Whenever an Orvil chapter or story came up, I got a sense that the author was deeply invested in this character. He felt like the star around which the other stars orbited.