Content Warning: The section of the guide includes discussions of infertility, pregnancy loss, and suicide.

Phoebe, the protagonist of The Wedding People, begins her journey during an emotional crisis. After years of struggling with infertility, Phoebe’s husband, Matt, has an affair with Mia, a close friend and colleague of Phoebe’s. Matt subsequently divorces Phoebe and moves in with Mia and her child from a previous marriage. The isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic only deepens Mia’s grief and depression. Meanwhile, Phoebe, working as an adjunct professor of literature at a university in St. Louis, Missouri, faces career stagnation and writer’s block. Reflecting on her recent past, Phoebe recalls waking up one day “entirely alone. To look back at your whole life like it was just a dream and think, What the fuck was that?” (17). After the death of her cat, Harry, Phoebe escapes to the Cornwall Inn in Newport, Rhode Island, intending to die by suicide.

Phoebe’s character arc serves as the foundation for the novel‘s major themes. She spends significant time reflecting on her mother, who died in childbirth, and the impact her absence had on Phoebe’s life, which influences the theme of

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