In keeping with general consensus Only the Creator Does It Right and Fanon Discontinuity, anything from the ghostwriter should kept on Casteel Series (ghostwritten), not here.
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Casteel Family
Kids
Heaven
Heaven Leigh Casteel
- Energetic and Soft-Spoken Duo: Shy, quiet Heaven contrasts strongly with her bold, shameless sister Fanny.
- Strong Family Resemblance: Heaven looks just like her mother Leigh, except with dark hair instead of blond. She also looks just like her grandmother Jillian.
Tom
Thomas Luke Casteel the Second
Fanny
Fanny Louisa Casteel
- Energetic and Soft-Spoken Duo: Shy, quiet Heaven contrasts strongly with her bold, shameless sister Fanny.
- Really Gets Around: Fanny is already getting fingered in the cloakroom at 11. Her family has already written her off as a lost cause. The dark subtext is that this Troubling Unchildlike Behavior suggests the possibility Fanny was sexually abused.Sarah: [dully] Yer sister Fanny is gonna be a whore. Ya kin't do nothin bout Fanny, Heaven. Ya jus look out fer yerself.
Keith
Keith Mark Casteel
- Sibling Yin-Yang: Keith and Our Jane. Keith is the gentle, shy, tender-hearted little brother while Our Jane is brash, affectionate, and a little bit of a show-off. Nonetheless, Keith and Our Jane's relationship is particularly harmonious, to the point that they're described as "heart-felt twins."
Our Jane
Jane Ellen Casteel
- Delicate and Sickly: Our Jane is weak, sickly, and frail from birth. She suffers intense pain if her stomach is empty (a problem since the kids are constantly on the brink of starvation), but the same pain also makes her vomit if she eats too much.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Jane is always called Our Jane. Heaven cuddled her so much as a baby that none of the other children got a chance to hold her, causing Fanny to proclaim that the new baby belonged to all of them, not just to Heaven: "She's our Jane, not yours!"From then on Jane became Our Jane, and was called that until eventually all of us forgot that once upon a time our youngest, sweetest, frailest, had only one name.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: Keith and Our Jane. Keith is the gentle, shy, tender-hearted little brother while Our Jane is brash, affectionate, and a little bit of a show-off. Nonetheless, Keith and Our Jane's relationship is particularly harmonious, to the point that they're described as "heart-felt twins."
Parents
Luke
Thomas Luke Casteel
- Chick Magnet: Luke is widely lusted after — Leigh, Sarah, Miss Deale, and Kitty. He's handsome and he has a certain charisma, but he's very much not husband material in any more substantial sense.Kitty: An there I was with t'hots fer yer big, handsome pa. Oh, every girl in town wantin an waitin fer him t'get inta her pants.
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas:"Ya killed yer ma when ya killed my last little one! Hear that! YER MA IS DEAD!"
Even I, who hated him, was shocked at how Sarah yelled that out, for if Pa loved anyone but himself, it had been Granny. I heard him suck in his breath, kind of groan, and then he sat down heavily enough to make the chair crack. - Hillbilly Moonshiner: Luke does the transporting step of a moonshiner operation.Pa came and went as he pleased, selling booze for the moonshiners, and sometimes helping them make it, but it was outwitting the Feds that gave Pa his greatest pleasure, and made him his biggest money—according to Sarah, who was terrified he'd be caught and thrown in jail, because the professional liquor brewers didn't care for the competition overproof alcohol gave them.
Sarah
Sarah
- Abusive Parent: In the immediate lead-up to her leaving, Sarah gets mean. One time she whips Tom.
- Amazonian Beauty: Heaven explicitly calls Sarah an Amazon. She's is 6 feet tall with red hair and green eyes. Her robust good health is remarked upon. While her husband doesn't appreciate her beauty, it's implied she is beautiful, or at least that she would be if she weren't prematurely haggard by hard life in the hills.
- Good Stepmother: Downplayed — Sarah isn't a perfect mother, but the fact that Heaven isn't her own daughter is a non-issue. Unlike Luke and Kitty, Sarah does not see Heaven as a nagging reminder of Leigh and the long-ago love triangle. The only times Sarah takes issue with Heaven, it's when she's mad at life and Heaven just happens to be nearby to absorb her anger. When Sarah's at the end of he rope and Abusive Parent tenancies come out, they land on all the kids equally.Annie: An she tried, give Sarah credit fer that. She made ya a good motha, treated ya like ya were her own. Nursed ya, loved ya.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Sarah spends over a decade taking care of Luke's 5 kids and 2 aging parents with very little help from him, all while he takes her day-in-day-out work for granted. He seems only minimally interested in her as a love interest. After he gives her syphilis and causes a Tragic Stillbirth, Sarah is at the end of her rope. She walks out on the family.
- Troubled Abuser: Downplayed Trope. Sarah is run ragged by poverty, Luke's inconsistency as a provider, and his promiscuity. Because of this, sometimes she's not an ideal mother.
Grandparents
Annie
Annie Casteel née Brandywine
- Happily Married: Amidst a sea of dysfunctional and abusive relationships, Annie and Toby have a sweet, loving relationship. Annie urges Heaven to "make sure t'marry t'right one, like I did."
- I Was Quite the Looker: By the time of the story Annie is in her mid-50s, and prematurely aged by a hard life. But reportedly she was a real beauty in her youth.Once, so I had been told by those old enough to remember, Annie Brandywine had been the beauty queen of the hills.
Toby
Toby Casteel
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Toby is basically a dependent. After Sarah leaves and Toby is the only adult left in the house, he is unable to be a caregiver for his grandchildren, needing to receive care from them instead. But the night that Luke is about to rape Heaven, Toby stands up, asserts his authority over Luke, and protects her.Toby: I remember a night when all the world went dark fer ya, an it'll go even darker if ya touch that girl.
- Happily Married: Amidst a sea of dysfunctional and abusive relationships, Annie and Toby have a sweet, loving relationship. Toby is absolutely gutted by his wife's death and is never the same after.
- The Quiet One: Heaven describes him as being really quiet for most of her childhood, "so content in his locked-in small world, and he didn't seem to need anyone but his wife." After Annie dies, he starts talking more.
Jankins family
Leigh
Leigh Diane "Angel" Casteel née VanVoreen
- Death by Childbirth: Leigh died giving birth to Heaven.
- Lost Lenore: Deconstructed. An abusive dad pining after a late Missing Mom is a common plotline. But here it is undercut on several points. Leigh was Luke's 14-year-old child-bride. They were only together for less than one full year — she was 14 and 3 days when they met, and still 14 when she died. Luke was cheating on her with Sarah. He always called her "Angel" rather than her name, implying he was Loving a Shadow even when she was alive.
- Morality Chain: Granny says Leigh made Luke want to be a better man.Annie: He was betta then, chile Heaven—even if ya don't believe it. Why, in t'days when yer angel ma were alive he'd set out fer work early each mornin, drivin his old pickup truck down t'Winnerrow where he was learnin all about carpentry an how t'build houses an such. He used t'come home full of nice talk about buildin us all a new house down in t'valley, an when he had that house, he were gonna work t'land, raise cows, pigs, an horses...
- Strong Family Resemblance: Heaven looks just like Leigh, except with dark hair instead of blond. Leigh also looks just like her mother Jillian.
Jillian
Jillian Tatterton née Jankins
- Age InsecurityJillian: You see, dear, it's not real lying. Women have to do what they can to create their own mystique. I suggest you start right now lying about your own age. It's never too soon.
- Strong Family Resemblance: Heaven looks just like Leigh, who looks just like Jillian.
Tatterton family
Tony
Townsend Anthony "Tony" Tatterton
Troy
Dennison family
Kitty
Kitty Dennison née Setterton
Cal
