58 pages • 1 hour read
Yulin KuangHow to End a Love Story
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2024A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
Helen Zhang
Content Warning: The source text and this guide include descriptions of a character’s death by suicide and the death of a minor in a car accident. They also include descriptions of anxiety and panic attacks.
Helen is a Chinese American woman whose life changed forever when her younger sister, Michelle, died by suicide at 16; Michelle ran into traffic and was struck by a car driven by Grant Shepherd, one of Helen’s classmates. As an adult, Helen is a successful author of YA books in New York and is preparing to work on the television adaptation of her novels. Despite her success, she struggles with personal relationships—she doesn’t have close friends because she finds it difficult to be vulnerable and connect with people—and her relationship with her parents is complicated. Helen is also struggling with writer’s block, and this is only compounded by her insecurities about relating with other people. Helen moves to Los Angeles to work on the adaptation of her novels, and she hopes this will be a rejuvenating change of scenery. However, she is shocked to discover that Grant is one of the writers who will be working on the adaptation. Helen shares her family’s conviction that Grant is responsible for her sister’s death, and she has been angry with him for years.
Helen tries to guilt Grant into quitting, but he insists they can be professional. Meanwhile, Helen’s lifelong struggle with emotions begins to impact her work, as she struggles with the forthright sharing of sentiments and personal stories that prove to be core to television writing. After a retreat to the woods where she is high on cannabis for the first time, Helen resolves to be more open with Grant and herself, and her writing improves. She also admits that she finds Grant attractive, taking tentative steps toward being completely honest about her emotions. This introduces the themes of The Link Between Creativity and Intimacy, along with Overcoming Grief and Trauma.
On a trip home for the winter holidays, Helen spends more time with Grant, inviting him to visit Michelle’s grave with her. Letting go of her anger at him proves crucial to her grieving process, but their mutual attraction soon gives way to stronger feelings, which conflicts with Helen’s sense of duty to her parents and the thematic resonance of The Pressures of Social Roles and Expectations. Helen’s mother expects her to adhere to her cultural values, and Helen feels intensely pressured to fulfill her parents’ expectations as the only surviving child. Grant struggles to understand this, even as their relationship deepens. It is obvious they respect and value one another as writers, share a sense of humor, and are falling in love. Helen believes that choosing happiness with Grant would be selfish and a betrayal of her parents, so she ends their relationship in response to family pressure. Later, Helen is in a car accident of her own, and in the aftermath, she blames her parents for her emotional struggles; she is furious that they have always refused to see her as she is.
Eventually, Helen tells her parents the truth and realizes that she truly loved Grant and was wrong to leave him. Her honesty proves key to ending her writer’s block, as she begins to write letters to Michelle soon after that help her to examine what their relationship meant to her. Her parents tacitly accept that they need to trust her autonomy, assuring her that her next career stage will go well. Helen realizes that she deserves happiness and that steeping herself in grief and suffering will not improve her relationship with her parents and sister. Afterward, she even expresses to Grant that she loves him. Their reunion, engagement, and marriage demonstrate that Helen has developed the capacity to grieve without being trapped by trauma, and Grant remains committed to her personal and professional growth in whatever ways she chooses.
Grant Shephard
A high school classmate of Helen’s, Grant had little connection to her until the accident that changed both of their lives and resulted in Michelle’s tragic death. Like Helen, Grant has become a successful writer, though he is a screenwriter in Los Angeles. Also, just like Helen, he, too, struggles with the aftermath of Michelle’s death, which speaks to the novel’s theme of overcoming grief and trauma; though he was legally absolved of all blame, he nevertheless feels guilty and responsible. Grant has anxiety and experiences panic attacks, usually spurred on by triggers from the accident and Michelle’s death. He, like Helen, gradually realizes the ways his past is holding him back—he ends a casual sexual relationship with an old high school friend as his feelings for Helen develop, realizing that he deserves and wants lasting attachment. Unlike Helen, Grant is open with his emotions, insisting they confront their attraction, though he persistently thinks he is not truly worthy of her and this is why their relationship cannot last.
Grant comes to appreciate Helen’s creativity and the ways she spurs his own, recognizing the link between creativity and intimacy. He presents her with his finished episode script as proof that she owes him a real conversation about their relationship, and later, he tells her that he appreciates her sense of humor more than he could have as a younger person. Even after she ends things between them, Grant realizes that Helen has given him the gift of “loving someone who thought he could and should do better” at his chosen art form (317). Helen’s faith in his talent encourages him to excel creatively. When she sends him her letters to Michelle and they reconcile, Grant assures her he does not want perfection, only commitment. Grant’s loyalty and persistence are key to Helen’s realization that she can be more than her past, while she offers him the same gift by coming to respect him for his kindness and creativity.
Mr. and Mrs. Zhang
Helen’s parents immigrated to New Jersey from China, eventually becoming financially successful and buying a home. They instilled much of their ambition and drive into their daughters. When the novel opens, Mrs. Zhang is furious when Grant comes to Michelle’s funeral, and Helen orders him to leave in solidarity with her mother. In adulthood, Helen feels compelled to betray no insecurities or doubts to her parents, and she “stores up bad news like acorns in the winter and metes them out in small doses” (109), believing she has to protect them from grief of any kind, especially after Michelle’s death. Helen’s mother puts immense pressure on her to marry a Chinese American man and have children; she fears that her daughter will otherwise lose connection to their culture. Helen’s father is somewhat more affable, telling her openly that he is impressed with her achievements on the show and her life in Los Angeles; he is also less furious with her for concealing Grant’s presence in her life than her mother proves to be. Helen blames her parents for her discomfort with emotions, mentioning often that they rarely express their affection in words or gestures.
Helen’s car accident is an echo of Michelle’s death, and it forces an emotional reckoning with her family. Her mother reads her texts with Grant and accuses her of hiding her entire life from them, while Helen responds furiously that her mother has left her no room to be herself. This fight leads to a temporary break in communication. At their reunion, Helen apologizes, and her parents are notably more optimistic about her ability to make her own choices; this leads to Helen writing her memoir. Helen’s parents underline that reconciliation with family trauma is key to both her creative and personal development.
Suraya
The show runner for The Ivy Papers, Suraya is a little older than Helen and is an established presence in Hollywood. She frequently gives Helen professional advice about transitioning to screenwriting. Helen avoids admitting to any insecurity or doubts in front of her, but Suraya tells her to fight for her vision for the project and accept any tensions that arise. Suraya comes to realize that Helen doubts her vision for the show and that her relationship with Grant is part of the issue. Helen tries to deny this, focusing on her perfectionism, but Suraya tells her: “Babe you have got to get better at detecting your own bullshit” (57). This forthright declaration forces Helen to face her insecurities, and it also forces her to take her work in the writers’ room more seriously and dwell less on her animosity toward Grant.
Suraya takes on a similar mentor role after Helen’s car accident, pointing out gently that it was not professional of Helen to list Suraya—her boss—as her emergency contact for personal crises. Suraya urges her to get therapy and face up to any problems in her personal life, saying that these lingering traumas do not actually enrich the writing life. Helen agrees with her, indicating her increasing willingness to admit vulnerability and acknowledge the ways the past holds her back. Suraya is thus a catalyst for Helen to examine her own perfectionism and the ways that it does not serve her either personally or professionally.
