Bridge (Bridget Kittinger-Harris) Character Analysis

Overview

Bridge—full name Bridget Kittinger-Harris—is a 24-year-old woman whose life unravels after her mother Jo dies of brain cancer. While clearing Jo's estate, Bridge discovers a bizarre chrysalis in the freezer, a “dreamworm” she remembers from childhood. Impulsively swallowing a strand triggers the ability to swap consciousness with alternate versions of herself across parallel realities. What follows is a desperate search for a mother who might still be alive in another world—a quest that forces Bridge to confront grief, identity, and the moral weight of inhabiting another person's life.

Plot Role

Bridge is the protagonist and primary point-of-view character. Her decision to use the dreamworm activates the central conflict: the search for Jo across universes. Along the way she uncovers Jo's secret history—that Jo herself used the dreamworm to escape miserable realities and, in one case, murdered another version of herself to steal her life. Bridge becomes an accidental detective, cataloguing 67 alternate selves, and eventually a reluctant judge of her mother's actions. The climax forces her to choose between staying with Jo in a world where she is alive or returning home to warn other selves about a killer named Amberlynn Damron.

Motivations and Traits Shown Through Actions

Bridge is driven by guilt and love. The 2006 prologue shows her as a seven-year-old who blames herself for her parents' fight after she tried to play with lab rats. That guilt resurfaces when Jo vanishes; Bridge wonders if she could have done something differently. After discovering the dreamworm, she acts on impulse, eating a strand without knowing the consequences. This recklessness is balanced by loyalty—she repeatedly returns to check on Dom, her best friend, and worries about the other selves she displaces.

Her bravery grows through practice. The first swap sends her onto a yacht in the Mediterranean, disoriented but quickly adapting. Later she forces herself to call a hostile mother figure, and when faced with Jo's betrayal, she does not collapse but insists on the truth: “Did you ask her? Did you ask her if you could steal her whole fucking life?” (chapter 56). Bridge's sarcasm becomes a shield, but her vulnerability emerges when she sobs in Dom's arms after failing to save a version of her mother.

Chronological Arc

• Childhood (2006): Seven-year-old Bridge accompanies Jo on a tense road trip to New Orleans. Jo obtains a “rabbit” from Mina; Bridge feels the weight of her parents' conflict. This establishes the mystery of the dreamworm.
• Discovery (present day, 2023): Bridge finds the chrysalis and swallows a strand. Her first trip lands her in the body of a tattooed sailor on a boat. She returns ecstatic, but Dom is terrified.
• Systematic searching: With Dom's reluctant help, Bridge and Caden compile a spreadsheet of 67 universes. She learns most other selves are dead; one died from domestic violence. The grief accumulates.
• Finding Jo: In a Christian version of herself (Religet), Bridge calls a mother who is alive—but this Jo is cold, initially dismissive. A later swap brings her to a world where Jo has been living in a rundown apartment. They embrace, but Bridge soon discovers Jo stole that life from a suicidal woman.
• Confrontation and choice: In the cabin world, Jo argues it was mercy. Bridge realizes she cannot stay. She leaves Jo to face the consequences and returns to her home reality, where she is hospitalized after killing Amberlynn in self-defense.
• Recovery: Two months later, Bridge is in a psychiatric facility. She plans one final dream journey to warn other selves about the threat. The postscript shows an alternate Jo finding a worm and repeating the cycle.

Relationships

Dom (Dominic): Dom is Bridge's anchor—fiercely protective, pragmatic, and the only person who demands a safe word. They clean Jo's rotting refrigerator, drive Bridge to sessions, and later track down Mina Remington. Bridge calls them “my best in the whole fucking world. In all the worlds.” Dom represents the grounded reality Bridge risks losing.

Caden: A former collaborator of Jo's who knows about the dreamworm. He is manipulative, hiding the fact that he took Jo's instruction letter. Bridge grows to distrust him, especially after he yells at Dom. He is a cautionary figure: obsession without ethics.

Jo (Bridge's mother): The most complex relationship. Bridge loves Jo unconditionally but must reckon with Jo's moral failures. Jo was a teenage runaway, a talented scientist, and ultimately a person willing to destroy another woman to escape her own pain. In the cabin scene, Bridge says “I love you, but Jesus. Look at what you've done.” She cannot forgive Jo but also cannot stop loving her.

Other selves: Bridge encounters versions of herself: a struggling single mother in the mountains, a sailor, a Christian, a scientist, a woman in an abusive relationship. She feels responsibility for them, especially the dead. Her final plan is to warn them all.

Key Decisions and Consequences

Theme and Symbol Connections

• Grief and Letting Go: Bridge's search is an attempt to keep Jo alive. Dom tells her, “None of this changes that.” She must learn to accept loss. See Grief and Letting Go.
• Identity and Choice: Every alternate self is a different set of choices. Bridge realizes “decisions have always felt like a trap” until she sees infinite branches. Her reclaiming of choice is central. See Identity and Choice.
• Multiverse Ethics: Is it acceptable to swap consciousness without consent? Jo steals a life; Bridge worries about imposing on others. The novel asks what we owe our other selves. See Multiverse Ethics.
• Abuse and Survival: The other-self killed by a partner reflects real domestic violence. Bridge survives Amberlynn's attack in self-defense. The cycle of trauma is examined. See Abuse and Survival.
• Belief vs Skepticism: Dom is skeptical; Bridge believes because she remembers childhood trips. The dreamworm tests faith. See Belief vs Skepticism.

For the full story, see the main book page, the ending explained, and questions and answers.

5 Book-Specific Questions and Answers

1. Why does Bridge initially think the dreamworm trips are a delusion?
As a child she believed the trips were real, but later she convinced herself they were hallucinations. Only after finding Jo's chrysalis and experiencing a swap as an adult does she accept they are genuine.

2. What stops Bridge from staying with Jo in the cabin world?
She realizes she cannot become a permanent body-snatcher. Jo has already killed a suicidal woman to take her life; staying would mean repeating that crime. Bridge also feels responsibility for the other selves she has harmed.

3. How does Dom react to Bridge's first swap?
Bridge tries to attack Dom with a lamp, then barricades herself in the bathroom. Dom is furious and terrified, later making Bridge promise never to do it again without a safe word.

4. What does Bridge learn from the spreadsheet of alternate selves?
Out of 67 universes, most versions of Jo died from brain cancer or accidents. One was murdered by a partner. Only two were confirmed alive. The evidence forces Bridge to face the rarity of Jo's survival.

5. What is Bridge's final plan at Cedar Peaks?
She plans to use dreamworm fragments (in gummy worms) to dream into other selves and warn them about Amberlynn. Dom demands she return, and Bridge promises she always will—showing she has learned to balance travel with connection.