Warning for minor spoilers about Spectacularly Broken

A few people have asked questions or expressed concerns about Lexa, either in reviews or to me privately, and they have a point. I know more about her than I wrote, and the most apparent thing about her is her ostensible fragility. It was difficult to fit in much of Lexa’s background since she doesn’t talk for the majority of the book, and she is not the main character of Spectacularly Broken. Lysander likes Lexa, but he’s far too wrapped up in his own issues to spend much time finding out about hers. So here are a few facts on Lexa.

1. She isn’t shy. Lexa has issues with meeting new people and with verbal and physical aggression, but she is not, at her core, a shy person. Once she gets to know the rest of green group, she has no problem calling Cai an idiot or expressing her approval of Cai and Lysander’s blossoming relationship – only she doesn’t do it verbally. She is also her own advocate and has a lot of inner strength. If Finn hadn’t intervened in the incident with Damien, she would have been the first to report it.

2. She has had prior therapy. Oak Hill Manor is not the extent of Lexa’s therapy, it’s simply one of the steps. Like everyone else at the manor, she needed a therapist recommendation in order to participate in the program (another fact I didn’t manage to fit into the book, because Lysander doesn’t give a fig about these things), and she is there voluntarily, challenging herself to interact with her peers.

3. She is determined. Lexa wants to heal. She faces her demons with open eyes and continues to climb one hurdle after another on her path to functioning, balanced and healthy. She accepts the support that green group and Finn give her and tries her best to support them in return because she knows how valuable and helpful it is.

In the end, all I can say is that, as with everyone else in the book, I tried my best to make Lexa a three-dimensional character and to accurately represent the symptoms of her past abuse and resulting issues. It’s important to me not to slip into cliches, and I hope I succeeded.