What Lies in the Woods

Cass Green is a primary character who is eventually revealed to be the antagonist. Cass comes from a wealthy and powerful family, and she is accustomed to getting what she wants. Cass has a strong personality and is willful and assertive, both as a young girl and as an adult: “Once Cassidy Green was fixed on a thing, there wasn’t a force in the world that could dissuade her” (19).

Cass has capitalized on the tragic events in the woods, establishing herself as a successful businesswoman and single mother. Cass is a canny and strategic thinker and a natural leader; whenever the three friends interact, Cass often emerges as the decision maker. However, Cass’s ability to influence and manipulate others gives her a dangerous amount of power; she is able to persuade people to do unethical things, including even kill.

Cass’s personality does not change over the course of the novel, but her true nature is revealed. While Cass is initially presented as strong-willed, she turns out to be power-hungry, manipulative, and a skillful liar. Cass’s motivation for coercing Liv into stabbing Naomi does reveal her vulnerabilities and insecurity: She was afraid of losing Liv, an insecurity that speaks to Jealousy and Tension Within Friendships. While Cass is self-aware enough to reveal why she wanted Naomi dead, she is also arrogant enough to take pride in how she orchestrated a cover up; there is no evidence that she would have evolved a sense of guilt or responsibility for her actions. When Cass is abruptly killed, her death seems to be just punishment for her lies, deceit, and murderousness: While she arrogantly believed she could manipulate and control Cody, Cody turns against her and seizes the chance to free himself from her blackmail.

Liv Barnes is a primary character in the novel; she plays an active role in the inciting action that sets the conflict of the plot into motion. Liv is presented as vulnerable and dreamy; she has a difficult time separating fantasy from reality and tends to live in her head. Liv is also sensitive and artistic. Liv has a history of mental illness and suicidal ideation, which makes the story that her death resulted from suicide more plausible. Liv’s emotional fragility allowed Cass to manipulate Liv into believing that she needed to kill Naomi, even though Naomi was one of her dearest friends. This psychological vulnerability also leads Liv’s parents to cover up her attack of Naomi; believing that she can’t be held responsible for her actions, her parents tell Naomi that “telling the truth would not have helped anyone […] it would have destroyed her” (278).

Despite this apparent fragility, Liv has a strong sense of justice and is willing to take risks to do what she thinks is right. Liv is also intelligent and resourceful; she uncovers the identity of the skeleton independently, which is something Naomi subsequently struggles to do. Liv has strong convictions, which is both her strength and downfall. Liv is the only one of the three friends who is willing to take responsibility for their childhood lies, uncover the skeleton’s identity, and own up to the secret they have been keeping.

Liv’s character does not evolve or change, especially because her life is cut tragically short. However, Liv does have a significant impact: Even after her death, Liv is a significant presence in the novel because Naomi becomes obsessed with understanding what led to Liv’s death, ensuring that the skeleton’s identity is eventually revealed, and laying the past to rest.

Ethan Schreiber plays the role of both sidekick and eventual love interest to Naomi; one of the novel’s plot twists revolves around the revelation that he is not who he says he is—Ethan is actually the son of convicted serial killer Stahl. Ethan is intelligent, competent, and patient, qualities that first draw Naomi toward him because she needs help with her investigation and wants to work with someone she can trust. Ethan is caring and protective toward Naomi, and he helps her to recognize that she does have worth and value. Ethan has a notable tendency to persuade people to trust him, even with very little context. He uses this power to advance his career as a true crime podcaster. Ethan is haunted by the idea that he might resemble his father, so he seeks out opportunities to test himself: Ethan has repeatedly tried to find out if he harbors any desires to hurt or harm women and eventually concludes that he does not. While Ethan is mostly presented as a respectful and helpful character, he lies to Naomi throughout the novel, justifying this duplicity by telling her, “We both lied, Naomi. You’ve been lying all along, to everyone” (265). At the end of the novel, Ethan has developed into someone who can concede that he has made mistakes but can also articulate the importance of trust and taking risks.

Cody Benham is an important secondary character and one of the novel’s two main antagonists. For most of the novel, Cody is depicted as a kind and caring figure; to Naomi, he embodies the archetypal masculine hero. He protects and saves Naomi when she is young, both when Oscar tries to assault her and when he carries her injured body out of the woods. As an adult, Naomi perceives Cody as reliable and upstanding; she reaches out to him for help when she finally plans to go public about the skeleton, but she doesn’t realize how much danger she is putting herself in. Cody’s character does not change, but he is revealed to be almost the complete opposite of the man he appears to be: a liar who is willing to kill people, especially women, who threaten his ability to maintain status and identity. This self-centered weakness allows Cass to blackmail Cody into funding her business and killing Liv. The reveal of Cody’s character contributes to the novel’s themes of deception and the difference between appearances and reality.