Bad Summer People

Lauren is regarded by many as the queen of Salcombe’s summer people. She works hard to project the epitome of style and elegance. Her status is reinforced by her reserve. People don’t know her intimately—if any of the summer people can be said to be intimate. Lauren’s character arc begins with her presentation as a nice but passive character whose boundaries are often violated. For example, she is bullied by her husband into agreeing to buy a house in Salcombe, she tolerates Rachel’s imposed friendship, and she appears to fall into her affair with Robert as a reaction to her husband’s neglect.

Lauren becomes more assertive over the course of the story. Her personal growth begins with her outburst over Beth’s cruelty to Amelie, her daughter. She then makes the assertive move to initiate an affair with Robert in order to assert her independence. By engaging in the affair, Lauren’s morally ambiguous behavior marks the beginning of her descent into even more problematic actions. Lauren is only using Robert, and eventually, her indifference to Jason and Jen’s affair illustrates the shallowness of her character. Ultimately, she descends to the crime of accessory to murder with Susan’s death, and at the end of the novel, she simply goes back to her shallow life without taking any responsibility for her actions.