Character Analysis
Kizzy
Despite being our main girl in this story, Kizzy isn't all that popular. As far as unpopular high school students go, though, she's pretty typical: She's bored, discontent, and ready for some excitement in her life so long as it means a cute boy will finally pay attention to her—even if this excitement comes in the form of danger. Unfortunately, this makes her the perfect target for goblins, who l-o-v-e girls who are burdened with unfulfilled longing:
The goblins want girls who dream so hard about being pretty their yearning leaves a palpable trail, a scent goblins can follow like sharks on a soft bloom of blood. The girls with hungry eyes who pray each night to wake up as someone else. Urgent, unkissed, wishful girls.
Like Kizzy. (1.P.3-4)
Unsurprisingly—because the goblins bank on it—when Kizzy finally gets some male attention, she goes all in despite the fact that part of her knows something is off, thanks to her family's witchy ways. She is so dissatisfied with her low social standing, though, that Kizzy is ready to do pretty much anything for some romance. Sadly, she's willing to do so even though she thinks this will be her only chance at romance—which she's totally wrong about. If she grows up, she'll actually be able to turn heads and attract all the romance that she wants:
She was the one who would someday know a dozen ways to wear a silk scarf, how to read the sky for rain and coax feral animals near, how to purr throaty love songs in Portuguese and Basque, how to lay a vampire to rest, how to light a cigar, how to light a man's imagination on fire.
If she lived to womanhood. (1.1.57-58)
Too bad Kizzy has no sense of this, though. Instead, in the course of the story, she is so determined to get some romance into her life that no price seems to high. Even with all of her grandma's warnings about goblins floating around in her head, Kizzy throws caution to the wind because she can't resist this cute boy who's actually paying attention to her. At the very end, Kizzy is the kind of girl who willingly gives her soul to the goblins, even knowing all she does about them:
She didn't reach for the knife. Heavily and hypnotically, with her soul flattening itself back like the ears of a hissing cat, Kizzy leaned in and drank of Jack Husk's full, moist mouth, and his red, red lips were hungry against hers, drinking her in return. (1.3.74)
Kizzy leans into that kiss even though she knows that it might be dangerous. And that, perhaps, is what makes her the most delectable kind of prey: She's as willing as they come. And while it's pretty classic teenage behavior to just go for something without considering the bigger picture, Kizzy's susceptibility to Jack is all the more tragic because we know, as readers, that things would have worked out just fine for her in the romance department if she'd only waited.
Jack Husk
Jack Husk may swagger into Kizzy's high school in shabby vintage clothing like some indie romantic comedy dreamboat, but he's a dangerous creature. See, he's actually a goblin in boy's clothing that has come to seduce Kizzy and steal her soul:
But Kizzy was ripe for goblins, and if anything got her, it would probably be one of them. Already one had tracked the perfume of her longing past the surly billy goat to peer in her bedroom window. Already it was studying her every move and perfecting its disguise. (1.1.59)
Jack's disguise as a hot teenage boy is completely flawless—he's exactly what Kizzy has been looking for throughout her whole short life. He woos her with flirtation, bantering, and even a breakfast picnic. With those moves, any teenage girl might be a complete goner, and Kizzy falls hook, line, and sinker.
Kizzy's Grandmother
Even though Kizzy's grandmother is dead by the time that the story begins, she still plays a huge part in Kizzy's life. She's the one who warned Kizzy about the danger of goblins and how they tried to steal her sister Mairenni, after all, plus she continues to warn her granddaughter from the grave. When Kizzy enters the cemetery with Jack, she hears a bunch of ghost voices trying to warn her about what's going to happen, and one of those voices belongs her grandmother:
"The wintermen are gleaning," said one, and another intoned "butterfly," and "hungry." "Stove burning," said a flat voice, and then suddenly, a familiar voice hissed, "—knife, Sunshine—" (1.3.33)
Kizzy's grandmother does everything a ghost can do to protect her granddaughter, but in the end it doesn't work. What a shame.