Iris (Lizzy Shelley) in The Children on the Hill: Character Analysis
Overview {#overview}
Iris—later known as Lizzy Shelley—enters The Children on the Hill as a silent, amnesiac girl Gran brings home in 1978, and she exits it as a monster-hunting podcaster who returns to Vermont in 2019 to confront the sister who once shared her childhood. The novel presents her as a character defined by gaps: gaps in memory, gaps in identity, and gaps between the person she was told she was and the person she becomes. Her arc moves from a girl who believes she is a monster to a woman who hunts them—only to discover that the line between those two roles was never as clear as she believed.
Her story is inseparable from the novel's central questions about identity as a constructed and erasable thing and monstrosity as a matter of perspective.
Plot Role {#plot-role}
Iris functions as both the novel's emotional center and its investigative engine. In the 1978 timeline, she is the mystery Gran brings home—a girl with no memory of her past, a scarred head, and stitches on her chest. Vi and Eric take her into their monster-hunting club, teaching her their rules and their lore, while Vi secretly reports Iris's progress to Gran. Iris's presence drives the children to break Gran's rules, sneaking into the Inn to find her file and uncover where she came from.
In the 2019 timeline, Lizzy is the protagonist of the present-day investigation. She runs a podcast about monsters, and she has been tracking a pattern: girls going missing on full moons, each having reported an encounter with a local legend before disappearing. She believes a single shapeshifting monster is responsible. The novel follows her as she chases this pattern to Vermont, where she finally confronts Vi in the basement of the Hillside Inn.
Motivations and Traits {#motivations-and-traits}
Iris's defining trait in childhood is her silence and her fear of herself. She tells Vi she remembers only waking up in a room with Dr. Hildreth standing over her. I'm no one, she says. She draws MNSTR in the monster book—a door with Gran's eyes looking through it. This is explicit evidence that her earliest self-conception is tied to the institution where she was kept; the interpretation that she feared Gran herself is a reasonable reading of that drawing, though the novel does not state it outright.
Her actions show a girl struggling to trust. When she holds binoculars backwards to make things smaller, she smiles—a small act of play that suggests she is learning to be a child again. But when she runs off in the woods and attacks Vi with a rock, she reveals the rage and fear beneath her quiet surface. You know what I am, she tells Vi, who answers, You're my sister.
As Lizzy, her motivation is more explicit: she hunts monsters because she believes she knows what they are. She tracks the missing girls obsessively, noting the full moons, the local legends, and the troubled family situations. She believes the disappearances are the work of one very clever, crafty, shapeshifting monster—the same monster she has been chasing her whole life.
Chronological Arc {#chronological-arc}
1978: Arrival. Gran brings Iris home and introduces her to Violet and Eric. Iris is silent, scarred, and amnesiac. Gran instructs Vi to treat her like a sister and to report anything Iris reveals.
May–June 1978: Integration. Iris begins to speak. She joins the monster-hunting club, learns the children's routines, and draws her monster. Vi promises to help her find out who she is, and the children plan to sneak into the Inn to find her file.
July 1978: Fracture. Iris runs off in the woods and attacks Vi. The confrontation ends with Vi pinning her and declaring, You're my sister. Iris asks Vi if she is afraid of her, and Vi admits she might be.
The final night. In the basement of the Inn, Vi closes her eyes and slips to the floor. When she wakes, she is not the same person. Lizzy remembers: Violet Hildreth was gone. The monster looked back at me from icy-cold eyes.
2019: Return. Lizzy, now a podcaster, investigates Lauren Schumacher's disappearance. She follows the pattern to Vermont, confronts Vi in the basement, and learns that Vi has been saving girls, not killing them—giving them new identities through a network of benefactors.
Relationships {#relationships}
Vi: The central relationship of the novel. Vi is the sister figure who teaches Iris how to be human, and later the monster Lizzy hunts. Their bond is complicated by Gran's manipulation—Vi was asked to report on Iris—and by the transformation that occurs in the basement. Vi's written message to Lizzy says she saves girls because she could not save her sister.
Eric: The third child in the club. He teaches Iris about monster hunting and photography. In 2019, he goes by Charlie and is distant from Lizzy, though he invites her to visit.
Gran: The figure who brings Iris home and who represents the institution that shaped her. Iris's drawing of MNSTR shows Gran's eyes looking through a door, suggesting that Gran is the monster Iris first learned to fear.
Skink: A young ally in 2019 who helps Lizzy track Lauren and who becomes a witness to the confrontation with Vi.
Key Decisions and Consequences {#key-decisions-and-consequences}
Iris decides to trust Vi and Eric. She joins their club, learns their rules, and allows herself to be drawn into their world. This trust leads to the discovery of her scar and the children's decision to investigate her past.
Iris decides to go to the Inn. She insists on seeing where she came from, believing it might help her remember. This decision leads to the final confrontation in the basement and the transformation that changes both sisters.
Lizzy decides to hunt Vi. She spends years tracking the pattern of missing girls, believing Vi is a monster. This decision brings her back to Vermont and to the truth about what Vi has been doing.
Lizzy decides to stop hunting. After Vi shows her the profiles of women with new identities, Lizzy begins to understand. She reflects on their shared past and the bond that still connects them.
Themes and Symbols {#themes-and-symbols}
Identity as constructed and erasable. Iris is a girl with no past, given a new name and a new family. Vi's work in 2019 takes this to an extreme: she gives girls new identities, erasing their old lives. To be reborn, one must die and cut all ties, Vi says. This connects directly to the theme of transformation through symbolic death.
Monstrosity as a matter of perspective. Iris believes she is a monster. Vi believes she is saving girls. Lizzy believes Vi is a monster. The novel keeps these perspectives in tension, never fully resolving who is right.
Family secrets and inherited harm. Gran's secrets about the Inn, about Iris's past, and about the patients shape everything that follows. The children inherit Gran's legacy of secrecy and manipulation, a pattern explored in family secrets and inherited harm.
Memory and the haunting past. Iris's amnesia is the starting point of her story. Lizzy's return to Vermont is a return to the place where her memories begin and end, echoing the novel's treatment of memory, false memory, and the haunting past.
Book-Specific Questions {#book-specific-questions}
1. Why does Iris draw MNSTR in the monster book?
Iris draws a rectangle with a smaller rectangle inside—a door—and Gran's eyes looking through it. She labels it MNSTR. The drawing is explicit evidence that her first conception of a monster is tied to the institution where she was kept and to Gran herself. Whether she feared Gran personally is an interpretation; the drawing itself shows Gran's eyes as the monster.
2. What does Lizzy believe is happening to the missing girls?
Lizzy believes a single shapeshifting monster is responsible. She notes that the girls go missing on full moons, that each told someone about an encounter with a local legend, and that each came from a troubled family. She believes Vi is that monster.
3. What does Vi reveal to Lizzy in the basement?
Vi shows Lizzy a laptop with profiles of women whose FKA names match missing girls. Jennifer Rothchild, for example, is now Claire Michaels. Vi explains that she rescues girls in dire situations and offers them second chances through a network of benefactors. She asks Lizzy to stop hunting her.
4. Why does Vi say she saves the girls?
In her written message to Lizzy, Vi says she saves the girls because she could not save her sister. Each time I transform a girl, it's YOU I'm saving, she writes. This suggests that Lizzy herself is the reason Vi does what she does.
5. What happens to Lauren's father?
Skink relays that police in Worcester found Lauren's diary documenting her father's abuse and her plan to report it. The father has vanished—he left his car, phone, and wallet behind and went out barefoot in pajamas to take out trash. The novel does not explicitly confirm what happened to him, but the implication is that Vi's network dealt with him.
For a fuller discussion of how Iris's story resolves, see the ending explained page, or browse questions and answers for more on the novel's characters and mysteries.