Today, anxiety is very common among individuals, whether it be because of their race, culture or appearance. Kiko, the protagonist in Starfish grows extremely anxious due to her appearance as a half white- half Asian. As a result, Kiko never felt comfortable in her own skin, which caused her to hate crowds and the idea of dealing with strangers. Akemi Dawn Bowman, the writer of Starfish, utilizes Kiko’s anxiety to influence the story’s conflict, however, Bowman fails to address the necessary changes to make the character progress.

    For as long as Kiko could remember, she always felt out of place at parties and large celebrations. Bowman portrayed the protagonist as a very simple girl, an introvert, who very much disliked going out into the uncertainties of society. All in all, she was never an outgoing person to begin with. Even so, when her partner, Jamie, setted out in attempt to convince her to give parties a second chance, Kiko continued to hesitate. (Bowman 12 & 238) Now, this is a problem because at the end of the book, there should be some progress with the characters. Yet, as this scene from the book proves, not much development has happened to Kiko as a person. Instead, after going into the threshold for a hopeful change, the author unsuccessfully changes Kiko’s progression. Because of this, the story’s conflict still remains as is. Furthermore, Jamie as a character doesn’t do much to help Kiko’s character development.

    Ever since Bowman introduced Jamie into the story, Kiko became overly dependent on him. Although Emery and Jamie’s character served as an aid for Kiko’s anxiety, Bowman still neglected to portray the overall effects that they should’ve had to the story’s conflict. ”I can't hide from the truth anymore. I let Jamie become my crutch. I let him fill all the voids in my life-- family, friendship, love-- and it hurts so much to know what I need to do now.” (Bowman 314) Based on how Bowman described her feelings, it’s possible that Jamie helped the protagonist come out of her shell at first, but Kiko gradually became more and more paranoid that she would continue using them as a crutch to her social anxiety. Thanks to Kiko’s crutches, this made it harder for Bowman to develop Kiko’s progression when she got immensely hurt from the truth that Jamie hid from her the whole time, which also affected Kiko’s relationship with her mom. She found out that her mother had been having an affair with Jamie’s father. All kinds of emotions swept over Kiko: sadness, heart break, and betrayal. All of this after she had gotten so close to Jamie. But to top that off, it became much more difficult to control her feelings when Kiko’s mom told that her brother tried to commit suicide.

    Ever since Kiko's family began to diverge, there was unruly hate for her mother etched into her heart. Kiko never believed in her mother; this was because she didn't think she ever receive the love and attention that she deserved. Nonetheless, as Bowman progresses the story, nothing seemed to have changed Kiko's desperation to finally have her mother's love and attention. In fact, it’s almost as if Kiko dug herself into a deeper pit where she won’t be able to move at all. She finds her thoughts turned to her mother. Yearning, aching for everything she never had. All while the flame in her heart growing brighter as her hate for her mother does too. “WHAT I WANT TO SAY: ‘You kicked him out of the house because you thought he was stealing-- you didn’t even believe me when I told you!’ WHAT I ACTUALLY SAY: ‘I will never apologize to Uncle max. Never.’”(Bowman 325) Bowman does not improve the relationship between Kiko and her mothers, nor does she do anything about Kiko's anxiety. Thus, there is no change in the story’s internal and external conflict.

    In Starfish, Bowman attempts to connect Kiko's anxiety a lot for the sake of the conflict, but she does not make enough advancements for it to actually help the plot move anywhere. Some of the reasons why the Kiko’s internal conflict didn’t improve was because she remained anti-social even after going through the immensely-sized threshold of her life with her “childhood friend,” Jamie. Though Jamie was there for Kiko’s in some department, she began to worry about depending on him forever when she found out that Jamie kept an inconsiderate lie around her the whole time. Additionally, Bowman didn’t change the fact that Kiko's relationship with her mother went nowhere in the end. Bowman fails to develop her characters, leaving many unanswered questions for readers. In an attempt to swiftly make the story more than it needed to be, Bowman fails to focus on the characters more than the events. After all, you can’t have a good story without characters that readers can love and connect with.