If you’re a lover of messy characters, let me introduce you to two of the most complicated fictional individuals I’ve come across in recent years. Nell Argall and Eve Bowman lead Madeleine Gray’s sophomore novel, Chosen Family. They meet at thirteen. They are bright and sharp-witted students. They are queer but coming of age at an all-girl’s school, which means they are hiding, at times ignoring or even denying, that part of themselves each day. Sometimes they exhaust themselves by rapidly cycling through all three. Until they meet each other at the start of the new school year and learn that a deep bond can reveal a deep truth, regardless of a person’s effort. But they are young. Their days are spent in the brutal arena that is secondary school. When one betrays the other, it sets in motion a story that spans eighteen years of two women who must come to terms with what they’ve done to each other if they want to repair the friendship that means so much to them.
In Chosen Family, we alternate between past and present, and witness these characters grow in, out, and around each other over the years. We’re tasked with the question of whether they will be able to come out of this intact. Gray complicates this question by pulling back the curtain on the impact of their choices before they’re able to. She doesn’t hold back on the damage that Nell and Eve are capable of. They do things we might not do, treat others in ways we might not. Yet, she does this with humor and honesty. The combination creates an engaging experience. That’s the interesting thing about messy characters, they are a subtle tool for getting the reader to interact with the novel. How much empathy are we willing to give these two people? What are we willing and unwilling to let them get away with? And what does that say about us? Nell and Eve are equal parts wonderful and insufferable, their relationship a beautiful example of how, if you’re open to it, growing up can happen at any age.
