Character Arc(s)
A positive character arc is when a person in a story starts off with flaws, fears, or false beliefs holding them back, and by the end, they grow into a better version of themselves. They face challenges that force them to question their old ways, struggle with change, and eventually overcome their inner struggles. The key is that they earn their growth—they don’t just magically improve, but learn through hardship. By the end, they’ve shed their limiting mindset and embrace a healthier, happier way of living. It’s about transformation from the inside out. In this post we will find out how Zuzanna is changing throughout the story.
From Ugly to Self-acceptance
Let’s start with the very beginning, a very good place to start. The title of the book: Ugly Girl.
With no disrespect to the lady in the picture, when Zuzanna looks in the mirror, she sees an ugly girl staring at her. When I look at this picture, I don’t see an ugly woman at all. I see those eyes looking straight through my soul. I see kindness in her face.
In this book, we will see her transformation from someone who considers herself ugly towards someone who has accepted what nature has given her? Finally, after all these years, she is like most people, not extremely pretty, nor ugly. Look around. The really pretty people you know are not more than a handful.
A woman named Desire
Her husband died eight years ago. Their sex life had not been so great to begin with, but at the end of Johan Lammen’s life, it was practically non-existent. And during the first years of being alone, Zuzanna had other things on her mind. She had resigned herself to become a sexless old spinster.
However, being around all these highly sexualised people around her, being chained to Sylvia in the most literal sense of the world, brought Desire back into her life. Perhaps a vibrator might have done the trick for her in the past, but no more. No more, baby, no more.
I do not know at this point if Zuzanna will be into kink as well. But at least at the end of the book she understands – really understands – the attraction of it. In the beginning of the book, this girl is strictly vanilla, but at the end? I don’t know yet. She often complains at the beginning that her life is boring. Well, at the end of the book that boredom – adventures are for other people, not me – has vanished and is replaced with a feeling of being very much alive.
