Deep and Dark and Dangerous

Ali is the story’s 13-year-old first-person narrator and protagonist. A competitive swimmer and an avid reader, she is only child of Claire and Pete. She is also cousin to Emma, with whom she has a warm relationship. Like Emma, she wishes she had a sibling, but she is quite content alone. She is an intensely curious teenager who enjoys mysteries, whether in the form of a Nancy Drew story or the television series Law & Order. When she finds the torn photograph, it is impossible to put out of her mind because it “a real-life mystery” (1).

Ali admires her aunt in part because she has aspirations of becoming an artist as well. However, she primarily enjoys her aunt’s company because Dulcie is vibrant and precisely the things that Claire is not. Ali’s comparison of her mother and her aunt does not come from a place of malice but from a longing to have a different, better relationship with her mother. She loves her mother deeply and defends her from her aunt’s abuse—particularly her snide comments about her mental health—but like all teenagers who are frustrated at not getting their way, Emma eventually joins her aunt in disparaging her mother.