How do you imagine Liam's father's death and the circumstances in which it occurred have shaped the man Liam has become?

Liam Gilroy says to Kieran on page 158, "You kind of ruined my life, you know?" How do you imagine Liam's father's death and the circumstances in which it occurred have shaped the man Liam has become?

Losing a father changes a person. Losing a father at such a young age left Liam with a lot of anger, which he aimed at Kieran, whom he believed caused the loss. This anger did not serve him well. His relationships with others were strained. Though he was pitied by the town and looked after by Sean, he was not well liked. It felt like he was constantly at odds with the world. Being suspected of murder only solidified that conflict.

I think he was profoundly affected by his father's death and it's sad that he had to carry that loss and anger throughout his whole life. It's even sadder that his anger was directed at the wrong person.

I think he needed some serious therapy. He was holding onto so much anger towards Kiernan when it wasn't even Kiernan's fault. And I actually earmarked the quote referenced from page 158 in the original question because Kiernan really made himself more vulnerable and his response to Liam was something along the lines of, well it kind of ruined mine as well you know? Liam was so blind to the fact that this completely changed Kiernan's life as well. He lost a brother, it fractured his family, he's had to learn how to live with this guilt for a long time. Liam calling him a "murderer" just seemed so childish and really showed how emotionally stunted Liam was I think.

Liam seems a very broken person. He is the more extreme embodiment of the storm tragedy understandably because it was his father and Liam was so young at the time of the accident. He is an interesting contrast to Kieran, notwithstanding the differences in their ages, who has put a lot of work into his recovery. Harper seems to make an interesting observation that it is very difficult to recover from severe trauma on your own.

paulak - I agree and I think that's a great point, the contrast between how Liam and Kiernan were each able to handle the storm really speaks a lot to how trauma can be overcome when the person is willing to work on themselves to overcome it. Liam seemed so quick to want someone to blame that he didn't seem at all ready to look internally as to how the trauma was affecting his life. I wonder how learning that his uncle Sean was really the responsible party will have affected him.

Liam life is taken over by his father's death. He has become an angry young man and needs someone to blame.

I think Liam in many ways suffered from more than just the loss of his father. Immediately after the accident, his mother, unable to cope, was in a drug fog. While her pain was certainly understandable and expected, Harper didn't describe any actions she took to really help Liam cope. In fact, there was more mention of the town holding its breath about her new relationship with Julian. Then two years later, Liam lost his grandparents, as they moved away. Based on Liam's comments to Bronte at the Surf and Turf, it almost seemed like he believed he lost his uncle in some ways--Sean forgave Kieran and continued to be friends with him. I'm not sure at seven, I would have been able to connect that Kieran was somehow responsible for the death of my father... so it seems to me that rather than trying to deal with the loss and try to recover, Liam grabbed on to the part of the story that his dad was going to rescue Kieran. He never moved forward in the grieving process, but rather stayed stuck in the angry phase. Julian really stepped up to be a significant influence in Liam's life, but Lyn let it be known that she often thought the kid got a big pass on a lot of his behavior. And the behavior was immature- -gossiping about Kieran with Bronte, slopping dirty mop water his way at closing time, and telling Kieran (at the age of 20) that he ruined his whole life. Liam's anger was obvious enough that many people in town could easily see him at the killer of Bronte. When the whole truth about what really happened during the storm comes out, Liam is going to have to make a decision. He can continue to be angry, or he can finally do the work he needs to do so that he can recover, not only from the childhood trauma he suffered, but also from the shock of his uncle's involvement. How will he feel knowing he wasted so much of his life being angry at the wrong person?

Liam has not had the help that a seven-year-old who experiences the trauma of losing his father will need and might expect. His mother suffers in her own right and as a result, she cannot come to the aid of her son. While Julian has reached out and provided support, Liam has still not had the opportunity to talk it out or work it out - especially since ten years later the real truth is not yet known. He is stuck being angry with the one living individual whom he can connect with his father's death, and until he becomes aware of what really occurred and/or until he realizes that anger will not help him move forward, he will remain one of those in Evelyn Bay who may forever truly be stuck in the past.

Liam needed therapy after his father's death or at the very least a mother who wasn’t lost to him because of drugs. Anger was the emotion Liam clung too when he had nothing else. He was unable to understand his anger was hurting himself the most. He will remain angry all his sad life even after the truth of the storm’s events are discovered.

I agree with Paula and Rebecca L as well. Liam was very young and immature when the tragedy happened. Unfortunately he didn’t have the help he needed to sort it all out. He did have Sean’s love and support but by itself it wasn’t much help because he had problems coping with the deaths himself.

Again a character that 'stayed in town'. Liam was surrounded, both in landscape and rumor, with the loss of his father. He had always lived with that story. What he did not remember from his youth was constantly there, constantly talked about, constant reminders. That is a lot of pressure for a young man growing up, not to mention that he had lost a very important person to him. His step father could only do so much, and due to the anger Liam had, obviously it was not enough to override the gossip and daily reminders of the loss of his father. I think the whole town continued to mourn that loss so Liam was surrounded with people reminding him.