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A handsome young man from Virginia, Lee is the second primary character in the novel, helping Maren to travel across the country in order to find her estranged father. Though these two young people find comfort in their shared condition, there are also key differences between Lee and Maren, both in their lifestyles and in their personal philosophies. Though Lee is, like Maren, an eater, his condition differs from hers in various ways. While Maren has little control over her cannibalistic impulses, Lee is able to select his victims, only killing those whom he feels deserve to be killed, such as an abusive baby-sitter. Unlike Maren, he feels little shame or guilt over his condition, which he views as a sort of superpower that allows him to punish the guilty. Though Maren believes that he is morally superior to her, Lee himself has little interest in these ethical distinctions, insisting that, ultimately, they are both the same because they both enjoy their consumption of human flesh. Further, many of the murders he commits throughout the course of the novel are self-serving and morally unjustifiable, despite his insistence that he only targets those who deserve it. At one point, he murders and consumes a teenage girl simply for annoying him, suggesting that he is not primarily motivated by lofty ideals.
Though his relationship to Maren is platonic at first, they grow to better understand each other as they discuss their experiences of cannibalism and familial dysfunction. Over time, a romance develops between these two teenage eaters. Lee is highly loyal to Maren, offering her a sense of companionship that she cherishes despite her constant fears of abandonment. Though Lee is helpful to Maren, he also pushes her to confront the realities of her situation directly. One of his primary characteristics is his belief in the truth. He refuses to indulge in comforting lies, and instead speaks to Maren with brutal honesty, even though she is often hurt by his words. While Maren is wracked with guilt and craves forgiveness for her actions, Lee argues that she secretly enjoys her cannibalism, and that there is no forgiveness possible for eaters. He mocks her desire to seek absolution in church, for example, and he similarly pushes her to be more realistic and practical in her future plans. The narrative climax of the novel is Lee’s decision to embrace Maren sexually, after which she eats him. Lee, she believes, consented to being eaten as a characteristically morbid expression of his love for her. Through his apparent sacrifice, he pushes Maren to accept herself just as he has accepted her.
