Character Analysis
When the book opens up, Charlie Kahn is already dead. But that doesn't mean that we don't get to know him intimately. Through Vera's eyes, and through Charlie's brief addresses to the reader from beyond the grave, we get to see Charlie grow up.
Best Friend Forever?
As they grow up together, Vera and Charlie Kahn are most certainly best friends. He is always there for Vera and involves her in everything that he does. Even when he builds a tree house, he insists on calling it their tree house rather than just his. As Vera explains:
Even though I knew Charlie wanted to do it himself, he called it our project and our tree house. I think it was his way of trying to help me through a hard time. (1.17.1)
Sweet, right? Charlie also insists on protecting Vera, so when the pervert first finds them as little kids, he tells Vera to run home ahead of him. They spend time telling each other all their secrets—Vera even tells him about how her mom used to be a stripper—and have sleepovers like any other best friends. But as they grow older, the nature of their relationship begins to change, and it's unclear if they can continue being friends as they begin to follow different paths.
Determined to be Different
Charlie has always been determined to be different. Different from other kids, and definitely different from his family. He doesn't want to be weak like his mother, and he doesn't want to be mean and cruel like his father either.
But Charlie's determination to be different from everyone else leads him down a bad path. He doesn't stay on the straight and narrow like Vera, and instead he starts drinking, smoking, and driving a motorcycle. He falls in with the Detentionheads and begins dating the queen of the misfits, Jenny Flick. The worst part is, though, that in trying so hard to be different, he ends up just like his father—a troubled guy who can explode in violence. He even ends up hitting Vera. But look at how he explains the reason he does so:
Oh yes. I would kill to be a pickle on Vera's Big Mac. Because Vera gave a s***.
And she knew how to tell the truth.
And she loved me.
So I hit her. Right when she said that, I hit her. (4.5.33-36)
It's as though Charlie's so freaked out by how much he cares for Vera—and how much she cares for him—that he responds by literally pushing her away. And it works: Vera no longer wants to be friends with him. So while Charlie's officially proven himself to be different, he's done so in a horrible way.
From Beyond the Grave
Charlie continues to be a big player in the story even when he's dead. First of all, he practically stalks Vera with his army of ghostly Charlies in order to convince her to go to the police and clear his name:
They climbed into the front window with the black Labrador puppies and beckoned with flat, paperlike fingers.
They are trying to get me to come to terms with what happened there. They are trying to get me to clear Charlie's name, but I'm just not ready to do that. (1.9.3-4)
The dead Charlies follow Vera everywhere, annoying her, protecting her, and most of all, not letting her forget about the nature of Charlie's death. Charlie also addresses the reader directly from the grave so that the story we get isn't just told from Vera's point of view. He inserts his own take on events that happened between them, like why he was drawn to Jenny Flick and chose her over Vera:
But why did I turn on Vera? I don't know. Because I didn't want her to see what I was becoming—a sneaky person who couldn't stop himself from doing s*** he shouldn't do. Maybe because I knew Vera was falling for me and I knew I was falling for her. Maybe because I knew she was fine and didn't need to be rescued, like Jenny and I did. (3.10.50)
Through dead Charlie's insight, we see what really happened through his perspective. Though he may have acted like a jerk toward Vera, we also see the demons that chased him and why he behaved the way that he did. And in seeing this, it's hard not to feel sorry for the kid. After all, Vera might be a loner, but Charlie really was pretty alone in the world during his lifetime.