Mistakes We Never Made

Content Warning: This section includes discussion of racial discrimination.

Emma Townsend is the narrator of Mistakes We Never Made and its main protagonist. She is also the maid of honor for her friend Sybil Rain, whose decision to flee her wedding incites this novel’s narrative arc. As Emma travels across multiple states on a road trip with Finn Hughes, she goes on a journey of self-discovery in which she comes to recognize that making mistakes is a part of life, and she reckons with her father’s sudden departure from her family and its impact on her life.

From the start of the novel, it is apparent that Emma is schedule-oriented and organized, especially when it comes to wanting her friends to have a good time. From the first page of Chapter 1, readers see that Emma is a thorough planner, with her “four identical, laminated copies of our itinerary” (1). Her desire for perfection stems from her care for her friends, and Sybil’s wedding weekend is the embodiment of her desire to make sure that everything goes smoothly. In fact, Emma reflects that getting Sybil down the aisle “was what was supposed to happen.