Narrator
The narrator of the book, as all the character in the story, does not hold a name. He is a twelve-year-old boy, the youngest in his family. He is wary and does not enjoy change. He initially lives together with his mother and older brother, but the mother is both physically and mentally abusive towards her two boys. The narrator is overly loyal and quick to stand up for the people he loves, even though they clearly are in the wrong.
Father
The father in the story loves power and control. He makes his youngest son, the narrator, hit himself in order to make it look like the mother was even more abusive than she was during the incident he catches her hurting their children. He goes to court against her, and he wins custody over their children. “Father” turns out to be equally abusive, or even more so, than the mother. He twists his children’s minds to follow his lead into the world of drug abuse and war.
Mother
The mother is the known fear in the beginning. She doesn’t care for her children, as she abuses both them and drugs. She was together with father, who also abused her, but when she let go of their relationship she also lost her two boys. Mother turns out to be the better of two evils, as the boys decide to try to move back in with her when they realize the life they would be forced to live together with their father.
