Sierra Santiago
Sierra is a fifteen-year-old living in Brooklyn who plans to spend much of her summer vacation from Octavia Butler High School completing a mural she has begun painting on the side of a much-hated abandoned eyesore of a building derisively nicknamed The Tower by locals. Her plans to use most of the summer to leisurely finish the mural change fundamentally as the result of a most unexpected family development which only changes everything that Sierra thinks she understands about her life.
Lázaro
Lázaro is Sierra’s grandfather and he has barely spoken since suffering a stroke. Nevertheless, Sierra is shocked to suddenly receive an urgent message clearly conveyed by her grandfather. She must finish the mural as soon as possible. But that is not the only message the old man has been saving up his energy to speak with clarity and precision. Sierra also receives a strange warning about why she must complete the mural ahead of schedule.
Robbie
Robbie is a classmate of Sierra. Another of her grandfather’s messages is that she can trust this boy. Robbie will become Sierra’s confidante and partner in navigating the mysterious world of the shadowshapers. Due to his Haitian heritage, he is uniquely gifted with the cultural background necessary to deal with the ability to contact the spirit world previously invisible to her. Romance inevitably enters the picture.
Dr. Jonathan Wick
Jonathan Wick is introduced as an anthropologist with the background and expertise to be of essential use to Sierra in discovering more about the mysteries of the shadowshapers. He is even willing to give Sierra some of his journals to read and from there she learns that he and her grandfather at one time had worked together. Eventually, however, Sierra realizes that Wick has actually become a shadowshaper himself and has been working against her interests the whole time.
Lucera
Lucera is initially introduced as an ambiguous mystery figure. The duo of Sierra and Robbie gradually expands to a larger circle of friends who all contribute to helping solve the mystery of Lucera’s actual identity since they come to believe that Wick can only be defeated with her help. After much travail and trauma, Lucera is finally revealed to Sierra’s grandmother who has recently died. From her, it is also explained that Lucera is not actually a person but a role and that it is Sierra’s destiny to be the next person to take on that role.
