Naomi "Nomi" Nickel
The protagonist of the novel, Nomi is a lively and energetic teenage girl living in a small Mennonite town. Her natural curiosity and inquisitiveness, a defining trait of hers, is often interpreted negatively as subversion or rebelliousness by others in the town. She didn't start rebellious, but she slowly and slowly became more and more as the novel progresses.
Ray Nickel
Ray is Nomi's more quiet and reserved father who attempts to conform to the town's ideals, the opposite of Tash. He loves his daughter and wife dearly, but fears for their more boisterous natures, as the town disapproves of them. He also enjoys innovating and learning about science.
Tash Nickel
Tash is Nomi's older sister, just as rebellious and free-spirited. She does not care about anyone's opinions, leaving town with her boyfriend Ian to head to California. She had a rebellious personality since the start and would never conform with the Mennonite society.
Trudie Nickel
Trudie is Nomi's mother, the sister of the local pastor. She feels overwhelmed by the town's immense pressure to conform to very strict values, and eventually leaves after Tash to forge her own path in a more free place.
Uncle Hans
Also known as The Mouth or Uncle Hands, he is one of the leaders of the East Village. He returned to the Mennonite Community after getting rejected by a girl he wanted to pursue to rule with an iron fist. He also has depression which is shown in Chapter seven (the specific scene being him eating ice cream next to a stove without having any sort of emotion).
Travis
Nomi's boyfriend. Uncaring, rebellious, he is not the ideal boyfriend at all. He would leave her naked in the rain after she got high, waiting in his pickup truck because he couldn't move her.
