Dark Life

Gemma Straid is Ty’s love interest and the novel’s deuteragonist. Gemma learns to trust and accept communal support over the course of the novel. Alone most of her life, Gemma must reckon with becoming part of a community: how to value the community’s needs, how to accept support from others, and how to build a sense of family even with those not related to her by blood.

Gemma is a Topsider, born and raised on land. She and her brother, Richard, are orphans. As orphans, they were wards and property of the Commonwealth. Richard broke rules to see her, which taught Gemma to break rules and value her own sense of morality. Gemma often barrels into situations without consideration of consequences or safety.

Ma and Pa Townson are scientists who helped create Benthic Territory and the technology that makes it possible. They believe in the freedom and space that the ocean offers their children. They provide resources from the ocean that those Topside need to survive. Despite their positive attitudes toward underwater living, they fear the existence of Dark Gifts. They worry that the gifts indicate some kind of brain damage from subsea living. Nonetheless, they are supportive, loving parents who extend their care to all in the pioneer community, even Gemma.

Zoe is Ty’s younger sister. She also has a hidden Dark Gift: the ability to generate electricity. She uses it to protect herself and to stun the creatures she collects. She is curious and brave, as she confronts Shade when he attacks their home. Zoe looks up to Ty and keeps her gift a secret at his behest.

The Benthic Territory pioneers that the novel introduces are Shurl, Lars, Hewitt, Jibby, and Raj. Hewitt is another pioneer child with a Dark Gift. He can make instant calculations and know environmental data just by entering a room. Raj is raising a daughter alone. Both he and Jibby want wives but struggle to find women willing to move subsea.

The pioneers are Ty’s community. They function as a support network and a family, acting as a model for Gemma to learn what it truly means to be part of a family. They live in a precarious position as pioneers, so they band together and ensure one another’s safety and success. They face prejudice from Topsiders, so they support one another emotionally, creating a bond that welcomes outsiders into their family.

Doc Kuntze is the doctor assigned by the Commonwealth to Benthic Territory and one of the novel’s antagonists. Doc Kuntze is actually Dr. William Metzger, the man who used underage boys to study the effects of subsea living on children through immoral experiments. He is also the man who published about Dark Gifts. When the government wanted Dark Gifts to be kept secret, they demoted Dr. Metzger and sent him far out into Benthic Territory. Doc Kuntze uses his alias to gain trust from the pioneers so he might discover more about Dark Gifts. Doc represents the Commonwealth as an antagonistic force in the pioneers’ lives.