47 pages • 1 hour read
J. A. WhiteNightbooks
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2018A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
Alex Mosher
Alex is the novel’s dynamic protagonist, a young boy who believes he is “weird” and different from all other children. He compares himself somewhat unfavorably with his “meathead” brother, John, whom he believes is far braver than himself. However, throughout the course of the text, Alex shows great courage and vulnerability, eventually learning that everyone is weird in their own way and that he is no more strange than anyone else. He comes to believe that his penchant for writing creepy stories doesn’t make him creepy or evil, despite what Natacha says.
Although Alex initially believes that his stories are “too scary,” he is devastated when the shredder destroys his nightbooks, helping him to realize how integral storytelling is to his identity. The fact that he craves positive feedback, even from the witch who abducts him, suggests how isolated he is, and how secret he has kept his stories because of this shame. It is Yasmin who helps Alex understand how his stories can actually save his life, by comparing him to Scheherazade (See: Background).
Like many good storytellers, Alex has a keen eye for character, and he realizes there is something fake about Natacha early on. Once, when she cackles loudly, he thinks, “It was […] as though Natacha had watched The Wizard of Oz one time too many and practiced her cackle in the mirror” (61). He also empathizes with Yasmin, even when she seems unkind, understanding that she acts this way out of fear that she will be hurt again. He even empathizes with Lenore, the cat he knows to be Natacha’s spy, offering her Froot Loops and then a poultice for her injuries after she is injured helping to fight the dangler-born.
When Alex’s nightbooks are destroyed, his regret shows him how he really feels about his writing. He wishes he’d “shar[ed] the stories when he had the chance” (152) rather than hiding them from others out of fear. Losing the stories helps him to realize that “They’re not just stories” (168) to him. They feel like part of him. Yasmin reassures him that everyone is weird in their own way, and Alex’s weirdness is no greater than anyone else’s.
When his storytelling saves his life as well as Yasmin’s, and ultimately helps them to defeat Aunt Gris, Alex realizes once and for all how powerful stories are and that they create their own kind of magic. He returns to the outside world a changed boy, grateful to have found Yasmin’s friendship and acceptance and to have realized his own agency as a writer and human being.
Yasmin
Yasmin is a supporting character, the “Gretel” to Alex’s “Hansel.” She’s a flat character who remains relatively static throughout the text, but her influence promotes Alex’s growth and self-acceptance. She uses the Arabic word for grandmother, sito, and kusa mihshi is a traditional dish in Syrian and Lebanese cuisine, which provide clues to her cultural background. She carries the pain of having seen Natacha transform her friends into ceramic figurines, and so she is not eager to make new friends when Alex arrives, unwilling to feel the pain of that loss again.
However, even before Alex covers for her—which is the event that changes their acquaintanceship into a friendship—Yasmin treats him compassionately, alerting him to Natacha’s appreciation of stories and even making food for him. The sandwiches she prepares are especially symbolic of her consideration for Alex and her kindness as a person. She doesn’t reject his friendship at first because she is cruel but, rather, because she hopes to avoid the pain of losing another friend, if and when it happens.
Yasmin acts tough, having developed a somewhat thicker skin than Alex because she has been in Natacha’s apartment longer and experienced more loss. She’s witnessed Lenore’s apparent loyalty to the witch, and so she is less willing than Alex to try to befriend the cat. However, once Lenore proves her loyalty to the children, it is Yasmin who offers to take Lenore with them when they escape.
Once she warms up to Alex, her actions and words reveal that she’s had a soft and kind heart all along. When he asks her about her family, she tells him, “It’s just … it hurts too much to talk about it. I miss my family. A lot. But they’re like a wound that hasn’t healed” (206). Yasmin’s recent experiences persuaded her to hide her softness and to behave as though she doesn’t care about others, but she obviously does. Her acceptance of Alex and her reassurance that “writing scary stories [isn’t] any stranger than memorizing random numbers sewn to the backs of uniforms” (170) is crucial to helping Alex develop more self-confidence.
Natacha
For much of the text, Natacha seems to be the story’s antagonist. She is the one who captures Yasmin and Alex, though she only temporarily acquires magical power by inhaling the fumes created by melting down some of the candy shell Aunt Gris’s cottage created to protect her. This is why she must use the misting room every night, and why she never allows anyone inside it with her.
Natacha is currently 29. Alex learns that she was captured by Aunt Gris at the age of 9. For two decades, she has lived alone, with only Lenore and the sleeping form of Aunt Gris for company. She is therefore lonely, something Alex recognizes early on. She is also characterized by her fear of Aunt Gris and the possibility that the old witch could awaken; Alex thinks that, for Natacha, the stories “serve a purpose, like a hastily prepared meal. All she cares about is keeping the apartment calm and under control” (191). This is why she appreciates scary stories—not because she loves them for their own sake the way Alex does, but because they soothe her captor back to sleep.
Natacha is also indirectly characterized by her excessive pride. She’s a “know-it-all” who longs to display her expertise and be recognized for her talents. After Alex tells her the story about the little girl who outsmarts the witch, Natacha is livid. She asks, incredulously, “Are you saying that I’m stupid? That I’m gullible? Is that what you’re trying to tell me?” and she is “so self-centered that she assumed the story was about her” (200). Alex knows that when Natacha gets angry, she becomes careless, and this is how he gets her to reveal that cinaroot masks the smell of a sleeping potion. Just as Scheherazade uses her storytelling skill and cunning to trick the king into keeping her alive, Alex manipulates Natacha with his stories to keep Yasmin and himself alive.
Ultimately, Natacha is different from Alex in a crucial way—though she believes they are the same—because rather than give up her access to Aunt Gris’s magic, she chose to hurt the children lured by the apartment. She tells Alex, “The apartment brought them to my door. I set the first few free, but … I was punished. For a long time, the magic oil didn’t work anymore. What choice did I have?” (269). Of course, she did have a choice: She could have given up her access to Aunt Gris’s magic and left the apartment for good. However, Natacha’s pride persuaded her to become like the person she hated most rather than relinquish her power.
Aunt Gris
Aunt Gris is the story’s true antagonist, the witch whose power fuels the enchanted apartment and created the candy cottage. She spent centuries eating children and devouring their youth so she could remain young. At one time, she was outsmarted by Natacha, perhaps for the same reason that Alex and Yasmin can outwit Natacha: By thinking herself too smart and cunning to be tricked by children. This is why she spends most of the story inside her candy coffin, inhaling the vapors of Natacha’s sleeping potion. Although her body changes from skin and bones to sugar and sweets, her actual character—her personality and evilness—remain the same, making her a static character, like her protégé.
Ultimately, it is Aunt Gris’s desire for and obsession with children’s fear and horror that leads to her death. Aunt Gris is entranced by Alex’s terrifying single sentences, desperate to learn of the chaos and destruction the characters’ fears create. She is so evil that she “grin[s] with childlike pleasure” (289) even as Alex leads her toward the boiler. Her death inside a furnace is ironic because she used to murder children by cooking them inside her oven; this is how she killed Ian, Natacha’s friend, the last child she ever consumed. Enchanted by the magic of Alex’s masterful storytelling, however, she does not realize the danger she’s in. Just as Alex outmaneuvers Natacha with his stories, he manipulates Aunt Gris as well.
