Lights Out

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of sexual content, child abuse, death, and sexual violence.

Aly is a trauma nurse at an urban hospital. She is lonely and conflicted about her isolation, but she feels that her work is important. Over the course of the novel, Aly discovers how her feelings of guilt and regret regarding her mother’s death drive her to try to save as many people as possible. However, her job also requires that she treat criminals, including men who abuse women. Aly frequently laments her lack of faith in humanity and her “numbness” to her own experiences, but Josh Hammond’s introduction to her life changes the way she sees people. In response to the horrors of her job, Aly learns self-defense, works out, and arms herself in case she is attacked. Overall, Aly is a strong character, embodying values of power, compassion, and intelligence, though she occasionally represents cynicism and violence. This mix of traits, which develop over the course of the narrative, make Aly a dynamic character. Her journey, though non-traditional, brings her out of her trauma and into an open, honest, and unexpected relationship with Josh.

Aly is one of the protagonists of the novel, forming half of the romance that drives the narrative forward.