When We Believed in Mermaids: A Novel

Content Warning: The source material for this guide includes descriptions of alcohol/drug addiction and recovery, the sexual assault of a child, suicidal ideation, abortion, and parental neglect.

Dr. Katherine “Kit” Bianci is the protagonist of the novel. Kit is an emergency room doctor with a complicated past. At the beginning of the novel, Kit is working her way through a changing relationship with her mother based on her mother’s recovery from a drug and alcohol addiction. Kit’s mother had addictions throughout all of her childhood, and this created a situation in which Kit and her sister, Josie, were often neglected. This neglect in Kit’s childhood has altered Kit’s perception of the world in ways that impact her interactions with other people and her sense of security.

As the novel progresses, Kit begins to confront memories from her childhood. Many of these memories concern on her sister, Josie, and a boy the family took in, Dylan. Kit’s perception of these memories is based on her understanding of each situation and her age and maturity at the time the memory was created. However, as the novel progresses, she begins to see some of the memories through mature eyes. While Kit had always known that her childhood was unusual, seeing certain events through the eyes of an adult, she begins to appreciate how Josie and Dylan attempted to protect her as a child.