Skandar Smith is a 13-year-old dreamer who wants nothing more than to be a unicorn rider. He is loyal to his friends and family, and he will do anything he can to make sure that they all remain safe, even if it means keeping a forbidden secret. Though he wants to become a rider, his father, who has depression, also places a lot of pressure on him to achieve this dream. According to his father, “it would fix everything—their money problems, their future, their happiness, even the days he couldn’t get out of bed” (6). Skandar therefore bears the weight of solving his family’s economic and social problems even though he is a teenager who is still struggling with his own place in the world.

Skandar is the protagonist of the novel and must find the balance between the person he is before the Island and the person he wants to become. Before he arrives on the Island or bonds with his unicorn, Scoundrel’s Luck, his primary motivations are to care for his family and to improve their status by excelling as a unicorn rider. However, he lacks confidence in himself. While he and his instructors know that he has the potential for greatness, he does not know how to channel his energy or exist within the boundaries of the world he now inhabits on the Island.