Broken Bayou

Krystal Lynn Watters is Willa’s mother. She is introduced through the framework of her problematic and often neglectful parenting. Early on, Willa observes that her mother, “burned her candle at both ends with such intensity, I’m amazed she made it this far” (6). As a young woman, she was hard-partying, fun-loving, and just as likely to take her children barhopping as she was to hire a babysitter. Her parenting drove Willa into the role of caretaker for her younger sister, and Krystal Lynn and Willa continue to struggle with their relationship long into Willa’s adulthood. She is also emotionally volatile, and her lack of stability as a mother and caretaker adversely impacted both of her daughters and imperiled her relationship with her other family members. Krystal Lynn is a complex character shown to be struggling against the weight of inherited trauma, addiction, and mental illness. Krystal has had bi-polar disorder all her life, and her condition is exacerbated by the difficulty she experiences trying to find an effective medication. Because she finds psychiatric drugs’ side effects too damaging, she self-medicates with alcohol, leading to problems with addiction. Her own mother faced a similar set of issues, and her character embodies the way that dysfunction and trauma pass from generation to generation in families. Still, Krystal Lynn does love her daughters. She does the best she can for them, even when her best falls woefully short. She does also eventually come to Willa’s aid, helping her to uncover secrets from her own family’s past as well as the town’s. She and Willa mend their fractured relationship, and Krystal Lynn truly commits to managing her mental health in a way that she hadn’t as a younger woman. She works carefully with a psychiatrist to find an appropriate medication, but then also does her part to remain on that medication long-term. She becomes, like Willa, a testament to the power of strength, resilience, and forgiveness.

Mabry is Willa’s younger sister. She is not living by the time the novel begins, but her presence looms large over the book and helps the author navigate the complex intersection of mental health and addiction. Mabry was born while her mother was struggling with alcohol use disorder. Willa notes: “Fetal alcohol syndrome strikes randomly in families, and it struck Mabry hard” (68). Although Willa was spared the physical impact of her mother’s alcohol addiction, Mabry is born with a complex cluster of symptoms associated with fetal alcohol syndrome: developmental disabilities, emotional dysregulation, and difficulty maintaining basic functionality. Ultimately, Mabry is not able to manage her many struggles and dies by suicide. Mabry’s character thus illustrates the dangers of alcohol abuse in mothers and raises awareness about the specific nature of fetal alcohol syndrome, a condition that is often misunderstood. Mabry also helps the author to depict the deep love that characterizes Willa’s family in spite of its difficulty and dysfunction. Both Willa and Krystal Lynn adore Mabry and do their best to help her in any way that they can. They might not be a particularly functional or healthy family throughout much of the novel, but they do care fiercely for one another.

Travis Arceneaux is Willa’s love interest, a local law enforcement officer, and the serial murder responsible for killing so many area women. He is handsome and charming, “tall with broad shoulders and a dimpled smile” (46). He uses his looks to appeal to and manipulate the people around him.

Travis represents the intersection of psychological realism and crime fiction: He is manipulative and an unreliable narrator, and his actions do not align with the code he has sworn to uphold as a police officer. Travis is also the product of a deeply damaged family. His mother is abusive, has Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, and spent his entire childhood belittling him. His father self-medicated with alcohol to cope with his wife’s challenging behavior, and his siblings were all scarred in some way by the trauma that they endured as children. He and Willa bond over their shared histories of neglect and mistreatment, and they are both aware of what they have in common. He observes: “Oh Willa, you and I are not so different. We both come from fucked up families where our job was to protect our siblings” (172). Unlike Willa, however, Travis does not protect his brothers and sisters. He is a sociopathic murderer incapable of empathy who manipulates and abuses his siblings and even murders his sister. His sociopathy becomes an important analytical point, however. He and Willa have similar backgrounds and struggle in similar ways, and yet she becomes a psychologist and he a violent criminal. His trajectory is an important lesson for Willa: It allows her to reflect on the complex relationship between genetics and experience and to better understand why people with similar childhoods can have such markedly different adult outcomes.

Ermine Taylor is a local woman in Broken Bayou who runs a shop and is a pillar of the community. She is important to Willa in that she serves as a surrogate parent, “a woman who became like a second mother to [her] over the years” (59). Ermine and Willa’s relationship demonstrates Willa’s deep need for acceptance, normalcy, and stability. Willa seeks her out because, during her youth, her own mother is an unstable caregiver, and Willa is exhausted from parenting her younger sister. Ermine’s presence in Willa’s life thus initially speaks to its dysfunction. However, Ermine also indicates how empathetic Willa is and how much value she places on interpersonal connections. Willa struggles in romantic relationships and gravitates toward other emotionally scarred individuals in her friendships, but she does care about human relationships. Willa’s deep bond with Ermine illustrates that tendency and helps to characterize her as a people-oriented individual. Ermine is also an important sounding board for Willa during her time in Broken Bayou. She listens with open ears as Willa tries to piece together her own past and the area’s serial murders, and she is as much of a friend to Willa during her adult years as she was when Willa was a child.

Rita Meade is a national news reporter who is in Broken Bayou to cover the barrel murders. Her character is not as well developed as others, but she is important for the ways in which she resembles Willa and for the broader commentary on strength and gender that the author makes by depicting strong, female characters. Like Willa, Rita is Southern, from a troubled family, and has achieved social mobility through hard work and dedication. She is characterized by her intelligence, her tenacity, and by the skill with which she investigates (and often solves) complex cases. She is, also like Willa, dedicated to work and cares more about her career than her personal life. Although ruthless, Rita is an honest individual, and her moral center is unshakeable. She survives Travis’s attempt on her life and at the end of the novel is shown interviewing Willa. That interview will serve as a counterpoint to Willa’s infamous on-air incident, and in it the assumption is that Willa will get a chance to tell her story. Rita thus provides Willa with a public forum in which to clear her name, but also to bring attention to the kinds of mental health struggles that she, her mother, and her sister have endured.

Doyle and Eddie are two of Travis’s brothers. Their characters help the author to further engage with the impact that addiction and mental illness have on families. Doyle immediately strikes Willa as threatening, and she initially suspects him of being the serial killer. He is ultimately revealed, however, as the target of his brother Travis’s manipulation and abuse, suggesting that appearances can be misleading. He and his entire family have long been stereotyped as “trailer trash” because of their lack of resources, and his outcast status makes him an easy scapegoat for the murders. Eddie is developmentally disabled and has long been subject to manipulation at the hands of his brother Travis. He has even aided and abetted Travis in his crimes, although Willa correctly identifies this as the result of Travis’s sociopathic manipulation and not any kind of violence on the part of Eddie himself. Both brothers are caught up in a complex family history that impacts them greatly and over which they have little control. Their predicament conveys the author’s broader argument for better access to mental healthcare for families, especially those in rural and underserved areas.