Conor is a 13-year-old English boy and the protagonist of the novel. He lives with his mother, who is battling an unnamed illness, and because she is often too exhausted or ill to take care of him, Conor has learned to fend for himself. In the opening chapters of the novel, Ness describes Conor “in his school uniform, his rucksack packed for the day and waiting by the front door. All things he’d done for himself” (11). Although Conor’s fierce sense of initiative and responsibility are the result of his mother’s diagnosis, he does not begrudge his mother for it.

Conor’s secretive side is seen on the very first page of the novel when Ness explains that “He’d told no one about the nightmare. Not his mum, obviously, but no one else either” (1). From the beginning, the nightmare is established as Conor’s greatest fear and biggest secret, and a constant source of inescapable shame in his life. It also tells the reader that although Conor and his mother are close, there are certain things they keep from each other, such as the details of the nightmare and the truth about her diagnosis. Ness goes on to illustrate how lonely Conor is, because not only has he not told his mother about this nightmare, but “not his dad in their fortnightly (or so) phone call, definitely not his Grandma, and no one at school.