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Ava (not to be confused with “Beautiful Ava”) is one of the novel’s protagonists, as well as Mack’s ally and romantic interest. Initially, she is described as a strong woman with a buzzcut, and she is bold, forthright, and physically powerful. Ava is a military veteran who has PTSD due to an incident in which she survived a roadside bombing that killed her lover, Maria, and left her with an injured leg. She enters the contest because she needs the money, but she often prioritizes helping others over trying to win. For example, she stays up all night with LeGrand and makes it a point to take care of Mack. Mack wants to deny the connection that is growing between them, but she reluctantly realizes that of the two Avas, Ava the veteran has become more important in Mack’s worldview. For her part, Ava feels a similar pull toward Mack, and the two often confide in each other.

Ava was chosen for the competition because her father is one of the heirs, although he is never named. However, Ava cannot perceive the monster, and the narrative eventually reveals that she is not her father’s biological child. He knew this and raised her as his daughter, providing her with a loving home. Ava thinks that he never belonged with people like Linda. Though she is not his biological daughter, she has inherited his love and strength. She also has fond memories of her mother, who made a living cleaning houses and always loved and supported her.

Although Mack and the others perceive Ava as tough and invulnerable, she is deeply affected by her past and by the loss of Maria. In moments of crisis, she has visceral flashbacks to the incident of the bombing, “smelling phantom smoke and charred flesh” (122). She tells Mack that Maria’s death made her feel like she “was evaporating, becoming less and less solid until [she] didn’t even know who [she] was” (133). At the end of the novel, she reminds herself that “she’s enough. She must be. She is the goddamn strongest woman in the world” (223). By finding her strength, she helps Mack defeat Linda and the monster.

LeGrand is one of the novel’s protagonists and is an ally to Mack and Ava. He is the son of Rulon Pulsipher, a man who runs a survivalist cult in Colorado and calls himself a prophet. LeGrand grew up with no knowledge of the outside world, but he is deeply devoted to his sister, Almera, who is disabled and nonverbal. He was exiled for seeking outside help and getting a doctor for her. In reality, Rulon raises his children to be sacrifices for the cult; he planned to get rid of LeGrand all along. LeGrand is 20 years old but is “undeniably still a boy” and is “soft, doughy-looking [and] very tall” (65). Despite his appearance, he is adept at climbing trees and has a variety of useful survival skills because of his upbringing.

LeGrand begins the novel terrified because of his inexperience with the outside world. He becomes “resigned” when he realizes that the game is deadly, and he decides that he and the other contestants are “being punished.” He reflects, “[H]ell is real and they’re in it,” but he decides, “It doesn’t really matter, because, really, he’s been in a color-bleached, hopeless hell ever since he was banished” (122). However, through his friendship with Ava and Mack, he comes to realize that his upbringing was deceptive and that he did not deserve to experience the traumatic things that happened to him. He draws on his newfound strength to survive and plans to return and rescue Almera.

Linda is the main antagonist of the novel and one of the point-of-view characters. She is an older white woman who hides her malice beneath a cheerful and harmless façade. In reality, she arranges the sacrifices in Asterion and is the mastermind behind the deadly hide-and-seek “game” in Amazement Park. When the contestants first meet her, she is described as being “genuinely excited to greet them” (15). As “a woman well past middle age with a jewel-toned pantsuit and hair that exists in defiance of gravity” (15), she exudes a sense of calm professionalism, but this is merely a disguise for her murderous motives. Because she seems so harmless, it takes time for the contestants to realize the true nature of the contest and Linda’s role within it.

Linda’s surname emphasizes her obsession with exuding “niceness” rather than goodness. Even though she regularly commits kidnapping and murder, she scolds Ava for cursing in her home and yells at Mack for touching her things. She thinks of the contestants as disposable objects whose sole existence is to ensure her family’s continued prosperity. As she tells Ava, “My grandparents sacrificed so we wouldn’t have to! […] We earned this world, and I’ll be damned if I let you take it from us” (210). Her callousness and obsession with maintaining her place in the world reveal her to be the true monster in the novel.

Brandon is one of the other contestants who becomes a friend and ally to Mack. He is introduced as “the kindest gas station attendant in Pocatello, Idaho” and remains an eternal optimist despite the dire circumstances (11). His father is one of the Callas heirs, and Brandon is the product of an affair. His father visited him sporadically and took him fishing but otherwise neglected him. After his mother died, Brandon was raised by his maternal grandmother, who was loving but blunt. When the novel begins, his grandmother has recently died, and Brandon is deeply lonely. He hopes that the competition will be a chance for him to make new friends, and he offers to let LeGrand and the others live with him after the contest is over. Ultimately, he sacrifices himself and kills Jaden to try to help LeGrand, Mack, and Ava survive a little longer. He is deeply mourned by those whom he befriended.

Jaden is one of the contestants and is an antagonist to Mack and the others. Believing that the game is only a harmless competition, he frequently cheats and tries to engineer situations that cause others to get caught. In doing so, he causes the deaths of both Sydney and Beautiful Ava. While he is brash, selfish, and widely disliked among the other contestants, the sections told from his point of view reveal that he is deeply insecure; in the past, he felt rejected by his mother and by several romantic partners. He then turned to a career as a CrossFit instructor to try to boost his self-esteem. He imagines his body as a “perfect machine” that “function[s] so well [he] couldn’t be sad or hurt or lonely anymore (142-43). Eventually, he is killed when Brandon drags him out of his hiding spot and pulls them both to the ground in a bid to buy the others more time.