Little Monsters

Adam is a principal character who also functions as an antagonist. He represents Toxic Patriarchy, dismissing Ken’s abuse of Abby.

A figure of great academic ability, Adam works as a marine biologist at the Cape Cod Institute for Oceanography. Like Ahab from Herman Melville’s novel Moby Dick (1851), Adam single-mindedly pursues his whales, attempting to decipher their language and sounds, to the detriment of his mental health, forgoing his medication for bipolar disorder. Hoping to achieve one more breakthrough, Adam believes “he [can] extend his mania beyond its normal course, buying himself enough time to solve the puzzle of cetacean language” (7).

At the beginning of the novel, Adam is manic. At the end, his mania has dissipated into depression. His belief that mania can induce brilliance and discovery echoes the archetypal trope of the tortured genius.

Adam is a misogynist. He is drawn to women for their physical attractiveness and bemoans changing social mores that render his flirting problematic. He enjoys provoking Abby and Steph. At the same time, he recognizes Abby’s talent and feels that she is more like him than Ken, for whom material goods and success are the highest good. He enjoys his position of power, relishing how he “[is] [Abby and Ken’s] king, ruler of all they [can] see” (66). He is devoted to the preservation of his name and remarks on the demise of the Gardner line, even with two granddaughters whom he finds “smart and capable” (45). Like all three of his children, Adam is ambitious and driven to succeed.

Ken is Abby’s older brother and antagonist. Ken opposes Abby often, dismissing her concerns about Adam’s mental state and health. He blocks her from taking ownership of the Arcadia, their mother’s study, willed to him before she could revise her will. He is shown to live a privileged, well-off life. He develops a concept for a high-end retirement community on the Cape; with his wealthy father-in-law’s support, he transforms it into a financial windfall. He lives in a well-appointed house in Chatham with his wife and daughters. Constantly fighting the erosion of his property, Ken considers himself a “‘conservationist, especially when it comes to wetlands and waterfront” (200), when in reality, his highest priorities are profit and selfish gain. This symbolizes how he, like Adam, resists the changing culture, which holds men more accountable for toxic masculinity.

Ken also plans to run for the House of Representatives as a Republican in the 2018 midterms. He uses people, as shown when he tries to use Steph and Toni to bolster his image as a Republican tolerant of LGBTQ+ individuals.

Ken is scarred by his mother’s death. As a child, he was teased about his deceased mother and weight. He compensated by attempting to be perfect—making money, working out, and marrying Jenny, a beautiful woman with money and impeccable social skills. Feeling abandoned and rejected, he abused Abby as a child.

Ken, having grown tired of his sister’s talent and resentful of feminist ideas about the patriarchy, stabs Abby’s painting Little Monster. The painting records his childhood abuse of his sister. Searching for Adam’s approval, Ken is like Cain from Genesis, whose sacrifice to God is found lacking—Ken’s gift of an apartment in his senior living development falls flat and embarrasses Adam.

Jenny is Ken’s wife and Abby’s best friend. According to Steph, Jenny has the “pleasantly attractive face of a morning talk-show host, simultaneously pretty and forgettable” (81). Steph reveals Jenny’s complexity when looking at her photo. Though she isn’t memorable, her hair—“blonde, blown, and sprayed into a stiff, chin-length dome” (81)—represents her powerful nature. Jenny discusses her ambition, comparing herself to first wives Cindy McCain and Laura Bush and promising to be more involved in Ken’s potential political career. A consummate hostess, Jenny creates perfect events and parties, and she plans a birthday party for Adam at her home. Her polished appearance makes her family life seem perfect. However, Jenny experiences marital discord with Ken, having caught him in a compromising position in his office, chatting online.

Before the events of the novel, Jenny acted out in college, rebelling against her “old Boston Brahmin family,” the Lowells (10). “Brahmin” alludes to the most powerful caste in Hindu society and suggests that Jenny’s family occupied the top rung of Boston’s social ladder.

The death of Jenny’s mother informs her choices. As her mother was dying from terminal cancer, Jenny promised she would improve her life. Transferring to New York University, Jenny joined her family’s business and married Ken. A dream of her mother changes Jenny’s course. When her dream-mother tells her to “[j]ust be Jennifer Lowell” (189), Jenny realizes that she doesn’t have to exist beneath a veneer and embraces her identity pre-marriage.

After Ken stabs Little Monster, Jenny makes the painting whole again. This reflects both how she and Abby are healing. As the novel ends, Jenny unites her rebellious side with her domestic one, helping to support Abby.

The daughter of Irish Catholics in Boston, Steph works as a police officer. Steph is “olive-skinned and smooth,” contrasting with her adoptive parents, the Murphys, who are “light and freckled” (30). In her baby picture, Steph looks “like a troll doll with that shock of black hair” (35). Diagnosed with myotonic dystrophy while pregnant, Steph searches for other family members who might have the disorder. Steph’s mother reveals her true paternity after they attend a sermon on lies and truth. She finally sees her mother’s picture of Adam Gardner, whom she recognizes as her father. Steph serves as a foil for Ken. In contrast to Ken, she supports Abby and nurtures her as a sibling. In the most literal act of support, she saves Abby when she collapses.

At the beginning of the novel, she is intimidated by the Gardners. By the end, she recognizes Ken and Adam’s rage and instability and chooses only to be family with Abby. At the novel’s conclusion, Steph and Toni have been embraced by Abby, Jenny, and her daughters.

Ken and Jenny’s twin daughters, Tessa and Frannie, are closer to their mother. Tessa is often openly hostile to her father. Like Abby, Tessa often opposes him, critiquing his sexism. Through them, the novel illustrates Adam’s misogyny and focus on surface appearances. Adam compliments Frannie at his birthday, telling her she looks “like a perfectly ripe peach” (265). He notices Tessa’s outfit, “khakis and a blue blazer, hair slicked back against her scalp,” which he dismisses as “fluidity” (265). When Steph first sees a photo of them, she notices “there [is] something electric about them. These girls [are] going to give their parents a run for their money” (81). Their inclusion in Little Monsters demonstrates that “[t]he [f]uture is [f]emale” (296), a slogan on the shirt Tessa wears at Abby’s baby shower.

David is Abby’s romantic interest and friend from childhood. A reporter on the Clinton campaign, he and Abby continue their affair after he marries Rebecca and has a child named Peony. He had attempted to marry Abby, but she declined. Abby and David are expecting a son, whom she names Reid. She keeps the pregnancy a secret from David until Ken tells him, not knowing David is the father. Through David, the narrative illustrates Ken’s sense of possessiveness over Abby. Abby and David “became true friends when she was eight and he was nine” when they were lost in the woods playing tag (90). Ken was jealous of David and Abby from that moment on, thinking she and David “had teamed up against him” (90).

Toni is a lapsed Catholic and Steph’s wife. She is a foil for Steph, who is a police officer. Her drive is highlighted by Adam, who calls her “[a] female Colombo” (221), and by her mission to get to know the Gardners. Toni, in contrast, is a “third-grade teacher by day and an amateur astrologer, Tarot card reader, and intuitive by night” (32). Toni consults astrology and her tarot cards before Steph meets the Gardners, correctly guessing their traumatic burdens. Toni worked as a hostess at Tzuco’s where she met Steph, who worked in the kitchen. They have a son together, whom they struggle to name. Toni advocates for a biblical name, guessing he will be bullied for having two moms. Steph advocates for a more nontraditional name, but they compromise on Jonah, the Old Testament prophet who is swallowed by a whale for defying God.