Of all the characters in The Chatter’s Web, Jean was the hardest to keep honest on the page.

She’s a Chatter, which in the world of the book means she’s hired, quite literally, to sit with lonely people and talk with them. Widows, the isolated, anyone who needs a friendly ear more than they need advice. It’s a lovely idea in theory. In Jean’s hands, it becomes something else entirely.

A Character Who Wouldn’t Stay Simple

I didn’t plan for Jean to become quite so morally slippery. She started as a support character, someone to give Carol a safe place to talk. But the more I wrote her, the more I realised that a person whose entire profession depends on other people’s loneliness is standing very close to temptation. Jean collects clients the way some people collect information, and she’s not above using either.

There’s a charity thread running through her story too, an overseas orphanage she claims to support with her clients’ donations. I enjoyed writing that particular thread because it’s the kind of thing that looks entirely wholesome from the outside. Mysteries, hidden meanings, and unexpected connections tend to hide best behind the things we assume are safe.

The Cost of Being Listened To

What makes Jean interesting to me, rather than simply villainous, is that she genuinely is good at her job. She listens well. She notices what people need. She just never stops asking what she can get out of noticing it. By the middle of the book, she’s quietly become the thread connecting nearly every character: Carol, Evelyn, Angela, Lizzie, all of them talking to Jean, none of them talking to each other.

That’s really the shape of the whole novel. A web spun by one woman who is very good at listening and not nearly as good at caring.

Conclusion

If you enjoy a character who makes you like her before you trust her, Jean is one to watch. Pick up The Chatter’s Web and tell me at what point you stopped believing her.