2. Did you find the characters convincing?

[John]

2. Did you find the characters convincing? Are they complex or one-dimensional?

[Manuel]

I loved Regina Magdalene Applegate and -sometimes even more- her roommate Kylie. The men, however, were not so congenial, even the good guys :-) Gina's character is extremely complex and wins against everybody else, as was to be expected, because she is the narrator and we can see inside her mind all the time.

[Lisa]

I found most of the characters pretty convincing, Gina in particular. In fact, at first I didn't like her very much -- she was not the kind of girl I would have chosen to hang out with in college. But, having taught college students, I could see how realistic her attitude was -- no matter what was going on in the world, all she really cared about was hanging out, keeping her job, getting her degree so that life could go on. Even after The Warning, even after the world starts going mad all around her, she remains oblivious for a long time, and only very reluctantly starts to admit that she can't remain neutral and self-centered in the midst of all the chaos.

I found that very realistic -- and realism is not something you expect to find in religiously-inspired apocalyptic stories. Too many writers miss this point, but Deanna Verhoff gets it -- while the world is going mad, we all tend to act as if things are just "business as usual," and seldom consider how we should be responding to the changes around us until it's all but too late.

I also like the fact that Gina, after the Warning, tries to prove God wrong, to prove to Him that she's a "good person." A lot of people do this, too -- as if they know better than God, as if they can prove Him wrong. They try to act like their idea of "good people," but they rely entirely on their own efforts and consequently fail. When the family she helps doesn't return as planned, Gina immediately assumes she has been duped and it only makes her angrier -- at herself and at God. This, too, I found very realistic. And realism is what makes her eventual conversion effective, I think.

[Mariangel]

I agree with what has been said so far about Gina's character. I also like Kylie, who despite what Gina reproaches her at some point ("I liked you better when you were an atheist", she does not suddenly turn into a preachy person after the Warning. It's an interesting turn of tables between them, but their friendship keeps them together through it.

I also liked Gina's grandmother and thought her realistic. She knows she can push Gina without turning her away, and exploits this fact. :)