Character Analysis
Andie Hardy is a home wrecker worthy of being the subject of an angry country music song. A student in Nick's magazine writing class, she enters into an affair with him about a year before the book's action begins to unfold. It all begins when she comes into The Bar for a drink after a bad date, then seduces Nick into coming home with her. With Nick in his mid-thirties, she's "grotesquely young" (19.24) at only twenty-three, but this doesn't seem to matter to either of them, as is often the case with these types of illicit relationships.
Andie is super clingy, and self-absorbed to the point of being totally ignorant of how dire Nick's situation is. She gets her "reassurance and comfort from touching" and sex (19.20), and is almost possessive of him—and this behavior continues even after Amy disappears, when she visits Go's house twice and makes demands of Nick that she "see [him] or talk to [him] every day" (33.7). We're not ones to be judgmental, but it's definitely a little off that she doesn't seem at all concerned by the fact that Nick is a suspect in his wife's murder.
The fact that Andie's behavior would be enough evidence to send Nick to death row doesn't seem to matter at all to her either—otherwise she'd buzz off or at least be a little more discerning about when and where she sees Nick. And yet, according to Amy, who stalks her on Facebook, she's "surprisingly discreet" (34.31) for a twenty-something in 2012. She doesn't post her whole life on the Internet and speaks about Nick only in veiled references woven into her status updates.
Just like everyone else in this book, though, she's really good at putting on an act. When she comes clean about the affair as revenge on Nick for dumping her, she's able to manipulate the public by looking, dressing, and acting like a harmless girl next door. "I know this is not the real Andie, because I have followed her in real life" (44.83), Amy says as she watches the press conference. She may be the same girl who uses tons of profanity and enjoys dirty sexploits with Nick, but not according to the media—only Nick and Amy (and yeah, probably Go) know the truth.