The Reappearance of Rachel Price

Charlie, Bel’s father, is a dynamic character whose characterization shifts dramatically throughout the course of the story. Originally, Charlie is implied to be a trustworthy and loving father, who provides consistency and stability for Bel after her mother mysteriously disappears. In the documentary, Bel praises Charlie’s constancy and love, saying, “He tried his hardest to give me as normal a childhood possible, under the circumstances. He’s the best dad I could ask for” (14).

Charlie often lovingly scolds Bel for her supposed forgetfulness and mistakes, such as leaving windows open or leaving the garbage unsecured. Furthermore, they disagree about the length of time that the young Bel was left in his truck outside a Taco Bell; she insists that his absence lasted for hours, while he laughingly claims that he was only gone for 15 minutes.

Bel’s certainty of Charlie’s trustworthiness is further eroded when Jeff confirms that Bel was indeed left for hours outside of the Taco Bell. Next, Bel discovers a hidden mug which Charlie claimed that either she or Rachel had broken. Charlie’s critiques of Bel are therefore revealed to be deliberate examples of gaslighting designed to make her doubt her own memories and to believe his fabricated version of the past. At Price Logging Yards, Bel discovers that Charlie has been imprisoned there by Rachel, and she also learns that Charlie planned to kill Rachel 16 years ago. Bel’s allegiance therefore switches to Rachel. Soon afterward, Charlie gets free and pursues Rachel and Bel, but he is killed in a deadly fall into a mine when Carter throws him away from Rachel, saving her life. Although Rachel later claims that Charlie didn’t die from the fall, Bel suspects that this is a lie designed to salve Carter’s conscience.

Rachel Price, Bel’s mother, mysteriously disappeared when Bel was two, and reappears during the novel’s primary plotline when Bel is 18. Rachel claims to have been kept in a basement by a mysterious man who disguised his appearance, but Bel begins to notice inconsistencies and lies in Rachel’s story. Because of Rachel’s evident dishonesty, the narrative implies that Rachel is untrustworthy and even sinister; Bel feels unsafe around her and worries about Carter’s well-being in Rachel’s presence.

Rachel is a dynamic character whose characterization shifts dramatically throughout the course of the novel. Bel’s instinct that Rachel was lying is correct, but these lies are revealed to be altruistic in nature, as Rachel wanted to protect Bel from the knowledge that the Prices, whom Bel loves dearly, are in fact violent and controlling. In a climactic plot twist, Bel shifts her allegiance from Charlie to Rachel, and in an example of poetic justice, Rachel lives with both of her daughters, free from any further threat of violence and control.

Fifteen-year-old Carter Price is initially introduced as the daughter of Jeff and Sherry Price. However, Carter is later revealed to be the daughter of Rachel and Charlie; Rachel gave birth to her while imprisoned in the red truck by Patrick, Charlie’s father, and Carter was taken from her and given to the infertile couple, neither of whom was aware of Carter’s origins. Carter is described as being open and loving, standing as a sharp contrast to Bel, who is guarded and suspicious. Carter therefore welcomes Rachel into the family, and her rapport with Rachel develops because of her strained relationship with her own mother, Sherry. Carter is often motivated to leave her own house to escape from Sherry’s harsh and controlling version of parenting.

Like Bel, Carter also begins to realize the truth of the family’s past when she notices physical similarities between herself and Rachel. She secretly compares a DNA test she takes of herself to one that she extracts from Bel. Realizing that Rachel is her mother and is in trouble, Carter finds the group above the mine near Price Logging Yard, where she saves Rachel by pushing away as he is raising an ax above Rachel’s head. This moment illustrates Carter’s bravery and her loyalty to her family. Like Bel and Rachel, Carter achieves a happy conclusion with her real family, whose identities had been hidden from her for so long.

Patrick Price, usually referred to as “Grandpa,” is the father of Charlie and Jeff Price. Patrick experiences senility and remains confused during the novel’s action, but the narrative reveals that he was violent and morally corrupt in his younger years. Although he did not kill Rachel as Charlie instructed him to, Patrick kept Rachel cruelly imprisoned in a red truck for 15 years. Furthermore, Patrick’s tendency toward violence and control is illustrated in the revelation that he killed his own wife by pushing her down the stairs. Patrick’s library holds the key to the mystery of both Rachel's and Charlie’s disappearances, as Rachel secretly inscribed coded messages in the books that Patrick brought to her.

Phillip Alves, who is not related to the Price family, is obsessed with the Rachel Price mystery. Having learned the basic facts of the case through news coverage and podcasts, he is determined to solve the mystery himself. Phillip is an erratic individual who kidnapped Bel when she was eight years old in order to grill her on the details of Rachel’s disappearance. Toward the end of the novel he also breaks into the Price home looking for clues. Caught in the act of invading the house, Phillip attacks Bel when he realizes that she is calling the police. His actions indicate his tendency toward violence, and Rachel briefly uses him as a scapegoat by suggesting that he was the man who held her in captivity, but she later admits that this isn’t true.

Sherry Price is the wife of Jeff Price. She exerts undue control over Carter and makes unpleasant and judgmental comments about Carter’s physical appearance, urging her to watch her diet and to keep her figure lean for dancing. Her harmful parenting techniques frame her as a negative influence on the family, an impression that is strengthened by her tactless comment to Rachel, in which she makes light of Rachel’s imprisonment by jokingly citing weight loss benefits of the scenario and callously claiming that “sixteen years of captivity is the best diet there is” (141).

Sherry is exposed as a duplicitous character in the novel’s conclusion, when it is revealed that Carter is Rachel’s daughter, for Sherry lied for many years by claiming that she gave to Carter. Because this claim was motivated by Sherry’s desperation to have a child, the author does grant the character a modicum of sympathy, especially given that Patrick claimed that the baby was being given away to be adopted. Overall, however, Jackson crafts a negative impression of Sherry in order to implicitly justify Rachel’s decision to oust her from Carter’s life.