49 pages • 1 hour read
Abby JimenezYours Truly
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2023A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
Briana Ortiz
Briana Ortiz is the female protagonist of the novel. Briana is an emergency room doctor who is good at her job and calm under pressure. However, in her private life, Briana is struggling with stressors and past traumas that continue to influence how she sees the world around her. Her brother, Benny, is in renal failure after a battle with an autoimmune disease, and Briana is powerless to help him, even though she’s a doctor. She is also mourning the end of her marriage, a traumatic loss compounded by her father’s abandonment when she was a child. These two traumatic abandonments have made it difficult for Briana to trust men, and at the beginning of the novel, she swears off dating and romance for good.
For these reasons, Briana is predisposed to dislike Jacob when she first meets him. She only allows herself to become close to him because their relationship is a show for his family and friends. Even though she begins to have real feelings for him, she is able to keep him at arm’s length because she believes him to be in love with someone else. She doesn’t feel threatened by the uncertainty of love because she believes he will never return the feeling. At the same time, the situation feels too close to her experience of being married to Nick, who was in love with another woman for most of their marriage. This creates a familiar conflict within Briana.
When Briana falls for Jacob and finds happiness for a short time, she is able to enjoy it because it is initially just for fun with no commitments and no future. However, when she realizes that she is pregnant, the trauma of her past returns and causes her to push Jacob away—a psychological reaction to her father’s abandonment and her husband’s infidelity. Yet, when Jacob refuses to allow Briana to push him away, she begins to see that not all men are untrustworthy. Jacob’s action helps Briana to grow and learn how to trust again.
Jacob Maddox
Jacob Maddox is the male protagonist of the novel. Jacob is an emergency room doctor who has an anxiety disorder. Jacob often feels anxious in social situations, which can cause him to appear standoffish, critical, and unfriendly to those who don’t know him. He has just started a new job at Royaume Northwestern Hospital, where he has made a bad first impression on his new coworkers, including Briana. Jacob’s anxiety disorder shapes his interactions with other people, causing him a great deal of discomfort in social situations that others take for granted. Despite his standoffish demeanor, Jacob is portrayed as a kind, caring man who goes out of his way to help everyone around him, even donating a kidney to a stranger.
Jacob has recently broken up with his girlfriend, Amy, in part because of his anxiety disorder. Amy was unable to understand his disorder and unwilling to make accommodations for it. Their breakup led Jacob to conclude that he is not suited for any kind of romantic relationship.
Jacob not only sometimes becomes panicked in social situations, but he also struggles to express his feelings. Therefore, when he asks Briana to pretend to be his girlfriend, he tells her that he still loves his former girlfriend, Amy, because he believes that this statement is truthful. He does care for Amy, but he is no longer romantically interested in her. However, his statement leads to a great deal of misunderstanding between him and Briana, preventing her from acting on her growing affection for Jacob and causing her to misunderstand a fight she overhears between Jacob and Amy. As a result of this miscommunication, Briana and Jacob become estranged until Jacob is finally able to express his true feelings.
As the novel progresses, Jacob’s anxiety begins to lessen, especially when he is in Briana’s company. Being with someone who understands his disorder and who can make social situations more bearable for him allows Jacob to feel more relaxed in these situations. The more comfortable Jacob is with Briana, the deeper his feelings for her grow. With the lessening of his anxiety, Jacob is able to participate in more social outings and express himself more clearly to Briana. In the end, this change not only allows Jacob to convince Briana of his feelings for her, but it also allows him to help her heal from her past trauma.
Benjamin “Benny” Ortiz
Benny Ortiz is Briana’s 27-year-old brother. He has renal failure, and his rare blood type has made it difficult to find a donor. Benny has lost his job and been forced to give up everything that once filled his life with meaning. As time passed, and the hope for a donor diminished, Benny’s depression deepened. It is not until Benny learns that he has been matched with a donor that his depression lifts and he begins to interact with old friends and return to some of the things he once loved to do.
Benny’s role in the novel is twofold. First, Benny is a daily reminder for Briana of the responsibilities she took on as a young child to care for her brother when their father abandoned the family. Briana’s mother was still pregnant with Benny when their father left and had to take menial jobs outside the home to pay the bills. This left Briana to care for Benny. Now that Benny is sick, Briana is once again his caregiver, filling a role that was left vacant by a man who chose something or someone else over his family. This situation reminds Briana not only of her father’s abandonment but also of her ex-husband’s. Therefore, when Jacob is the one to rescue Benny and offer him a new life, it allows Briana to see that not all men are like her father and ex-husband.
Benny’s second role in the novel is to serve as a reminder to Briana that her relationship with Jacob isn’t real. Benny asks Briana about her relationship with Jacob, questioning why Jacob asked her on a date when he’s already her boyfriend and wondering why Jacob never kisses her. These moments shake Briana’s growing affection for Jacob, reminding her that Jacob is in love with Amy and she is only a fake girlfriend for his family to make them think he is handling Amy’s new relationship well. Benny facilitates the fake relationship trope within the plot and keeps the tension raised between Briana and Jacob as they both grapple with their real feelings.
Amy
Amy is Jacob’s ex-girlfriend and an antagonist of sorts. Amy is a young professional woman who worked with Jacob before and while they dated. She is a sociable person who enjoys attending parties and other events with friends. When she begins dating Jacob, she sees no harm in taking him to unfamiliar locations and loud clubs; she even throws him a surprise birthday party. However, Jacob’s anxiety disorder causes him to feel uncomfortable in these places, which in turn causes tension between him and Amy when she doesn’t understand why he doesn’t enjoy the social outings she plans.
Not only is Amy a sociable person, but she is also a high-energy person. Being around her forces Jacob to pay attention and constantly interact, both things that are difficult for him. The longer they are together, the harder it is for Jacob to feel comfortable in Amy’s presence, but Jacob remains with Amy because he thinks that due to his anxiety disorder, any relationship will be this way. By the time they break up, Jacob feels as though he is not suited for any kind of relationship.
When Jacob introduces Briana to his family, Amy represents a roadblock to their relationship. At first, Briana dislikes Amy because she believes she is insensitive to Jacob’s anxiety and his needs. At the same time, Briana believes Jacob to still be in love with Amy, so she views their every interaction as Jacob’s attempts to get back together, when, in reality, it is the opposite. Briana is sensitive to Jacob’s anxiety disorder and doesn’t understand how Amy can’t be, which also contributes to her dislike. However, as time goes on, Briana comes to recognize that Amy wasn’t intentionally insensitive to Jacob, she simply was unaware of how much his anxiety affects him. Briana also sees that her jealousy colored her opinion of Amy, and once that is dealt with, she comes to like her.
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