Our Fault

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

Noah Morgan is one of the novel’s protagonists and first-person narrators. Including the untitled prologue, all of the chapters titled with Noah’s first name are written from her first-person point of view and trace episodes from her storyline. In the narrative present, Noah is 19 years old. Her mother is Raffaella, and her stepfather is William Leister. By marriage, Nick Leister is her stepbrother. Roughly a year after she and Nick break up, Noah is still wrestling with heartbreak and despair. She struggles to heal from her sorrow because she’s still sorry “for disappointing [Nick, for breaking his heart, for getting him to love [her] and then showing him love didn’t exist, at least not without pain” (i). When Our Fault begins, Noah is thus launching out onto a Quest for Personal Growth in the wake of her and Nick’s separation. 

Noah is an honest, open, and determined character. She has survived a traumatic upbringing—defined by her mother’s absence and late father’s substance use and violence—but is resolved to grow beyond her past.