Content Warning: This section contains references to violence, sexual assault and rape, stalking, and child trafficking.

Adeline Reilly is the protagonist of the novel, and she is a young woman who has recently moved into her grandmother’s home, Parsons Manor, following her grandmother’s death. She is a writer, and it is implied that she is relatively successful despite her youth and lack of professional training. She left college to pursue independent publishing, and she has since built up a following of loyal readers. All chapters told from her perspective are labelled as “The Manipulator,” which is explained as a nickname she calls herself because of the way her writing manipulates her readers. In the novel, her residence at Parsons Manor is contested by her mother, Sarina, because her family has had negative experiences in the house, such as her great-grandmother, Gigi’s, murder, and the separation of Sarina and Sera, Adeline’s grandmother, following that murder.

“The Manipulator” and “little mouse” are the two nicknames given to Adeline in the novel, and each reflects a different aspect of her character. She is presented as a bold young woman in her interior

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