Andrew Bloom and Lily Bloom (father-daughter)

The relationship between Andrew Bloom and his daughter Lily is the novel's foundational wound, the source from which nearly every other conflict and theme flows. It is a bond defined by radical contradiction: Lily loves her father as a daughter, yet hates him as a human being. This duality, which she confesses to Ryle Kincaid on the night they first meet, is not a passing ambivalence but the central tension of her inner life. Andrew's violence toward her mother, Jenny, and his brutal assault on Atlas Corrigan shape Lily's understanding of love, anger, and her own capacity for both, casting a long shadow over her adult relationships and her eventual struggle to break free from a cycle of abuse she swore she would never repeat.

Identity and Background

Andrew Bloom is introduced not through his own actions but through the legacy of his abuse. Lily's earliest memories are framed by the rhythm of her parents' marriage: the fights, the violence, and the predictable period of remorse that followed. When Andrew hit Jenny, he would spend the next week or two making up for it, buying flowers or taking the family out to a nice dinner. He would also buy things for Lily, knowing she hated the fighting. This created a deeply confusing dynamic for the young Lily, who found herself looking forward to the nights her parents fought because she knew the two weeks that followed would be great. She admits this with shame, recognizing that the abuse became their norm, and that her own passive acceptance of it made her feel just as guilty as her father. This early conditioning taught Lily that love and violence were intertwined, that pain was the price of affection, and that a man's anger could be bought off with gifts and apologies.

The Violence and Its Consequences

The most visceral and defining moment of Lily's childhood is the night Andrew beat Atlas Corrigan with a baseball bat. Lily had not locked her bedroom door, and when her father heard her talking to someone and threw open the door to find Atlas in bed with her, he was angrier than she had ever seen him. Lily watched, completely helpless, as her father came down on Atlas with the bat. The sound of bones snapping was the only thing piercing through her screams. She still does not know who called the police—she suspects her mother—but by the time they arrived and pulled Andrew off of Atlas, Lily did not even recognize him, he was covered in so much blood. This event is not just a memory; it is the moment Lily's childhood innocence is shattered and her hatred for her father solidifies into something permanent. It also establishes a direct link between Andrew's violence and Lily's romantic life, as Atlas becomes the first boy she loves and the first victim of her father's rage.

The Anti-Eulogy and Its Aftermath

The relationship reaches its public climax at Andrew Bloom's funeral. Lily stands at the podium, prepared to honor his life by sharing five great things about her father, but she freezes. She cannot say a single good thing about him. This act of defiance, which she later reenacts for Ryle on the rooftop, is a silent but powerful declaration of her true feelings. It is not until much later, when her mother Jenny reveals that she knew Lily did not freeze up, that the full weight of the moment is understood. Jenny tells Lily that it was the proudest she has ever been of her, that Lily was the only one in her life who ever stood up for her, and that she was strong when Jenny was scared. She urges Lily to "Be that girl, Lily. Brave and bold." This revelation reframes the anti-eulogy not as a failure but as an act of courage, and it becomes a touchstone for Lily's own strength as she faces the abuse in her own marriage.

The Cycle of Abuse and Its Echoes

The most insidious legacy of Andrew's abuse is the way it echoes through Lily's relationship with Ryle Kincaid. When Ryle first pushes Lily in the kitchen, she does not hear his voice; she hears her father's. "I'm sorry, Jenny. It was an accident. I'm so sorry," and then, "I'm sorry, Lily. It was an accident. I'm so sorry." The parallel is explicit and terrifying. Lily's mother, Jenny, had forgiven Andrew for that first incident because his apology and regret were believable enough that giving him a second chance hurt less than leaving with a broken heart would have. Lily finds herself in the same position, rationalizing Ryle's violence by comparing it to her father's. She tells herself that Ryle is not emulating her father's behavior, that her father never had an excuse for his anger and was never immediately apologetic, and that the way he treated her mother was much worse. This desperate attempt to distinguish her situation from her mother's is a direct result of her childhood, where she learned to measure abuse on a scale of severity rather than recognizing it as an absolute wrong. The author's note confirms this was intentional: the first incident between Ryle and Lily in the kitchen is what happened the first time her father ever hit her mother, a casserole, a laugh, and a violent blow that sent her flying across the kitchen floor.

Change and Ending

Lily's relationship with her father is ultimately one of rejection and redefinition. She does not mourn him as a good man; she mourns the idea of what a father should have been. Her anti-eulogy is her final word on him, a refusal to participate in the fiction of his goodness. In the end, her growth is measured by her ability to break the cycle he started. She leaves Ryle, a choice her mother was never able to make, and she does so with the strength that was born in that moment at the podium. The relationship with Andrew Bloom is not resolved through reconciliation but through Lily's determination to be the woman her mother was never strong enough to be. She carries the scars of his violence, but she also carries the lesson of his failure, using it to forge a different path for herself and her daughter, Emerson. The father-daughter bond is thus transformed from a source of pain into a catalyst for liberation, a painful inheritance that Lily ultimately refuses to pass on.