I Never Promised You a Rose Garden Characters

One Crazy KidWhen we meet Deborah at the beginning of the novel, she's a sixteen-year-old who's struggling with mental illness, who's recently attempted suicide, and who's living part-time in an im...

We've all heard of daddy issues. Nobody wants them, but a lot of us have them. Well, Deborah Blau has Jacob Blau. And Jacob Blau gives her plenty of reasons to go a little nuts. Did we say a little...

The Family GlueLike most moms, Esther feels like she has to be the glue that holds the family together. But Esther likes to use a brand of glue that covers everything up so it looks nice and shiny...

Dr. Fried is a chubby German immigrant who also happens to be a renowned psychiatrist and therapist.Right from the get-go, we know that Dr. Fried is compassionate and real with her patients: "She l...

Everyone needs a best friend. For Deborah, that friend is Carla Stoneham. In fact, Carla is the first true friend that Deborah has since since she was very young.Carla lives at the mental hospital...

Pop, Deborah's grandfather, came to the U.S. from Latvia. He has a major chip on his shoulder.Where do we begin?Pop has a clubfoot and gets made fun of a lot for it. He also deals with prejudice be...

Deborah kinda sorta maybe tried to kill her little sister Suzy.Wait, what?Okay, not exactly. Deborah hated the idea of Suzy being born so much that she fantasized about throwing her out of the wind...

Mrs. King is the landlady who rents Deborah a room in town when she is released from the mental hospital.Mrs. King is not from the town originally, so she doesn't have the same deeply rooted prejud...

Carmen Carmen is like the mysterious new kid who moves into your town senior year.She's a new patient who arrives at the hospital in the third year Deborah is there—near the end of the novel. She...

EllisEllis is the D ward attendant who replaces Hobbs. And nobody liked Hobbs.Ellis a lot like Hobbs, in that he distances himself from patients and carries himself with the air that he's better th...

Anterrabae You know that one friend who's a bad influence, but you kind of love 'em anyway? That's Anterrabae.Deborah refers to Anterrabae as the "falling god" of Yr. He almost always appears to be...