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The novel's empathetic 13-year-old protagonist, Jojo is a boy burdened by his family's problems and the harsh realities of race and poverty in the American South. He possesses a maturity far beyond his years, and his life has been shaped by the necessity to care for his younger sister Kayla. He must also steer her through the emotional pain of his drug-addicted mother Leonie’s uncaring choices, and the absence of his incarcerated father, Michael. Jojo has a close relationship with his grandparents, Mam and Pop, who offer him both emotional stability and stories from their past. They are Jojo’s only real access to a sense of identity and history beyond that which outsiders ascribe to him..
The shadows of Parchman Farm prison and the racial injustices of Mississippi loom large over Jojo's life, forcing him to confront the brutal truths of living in a world that discriminates against him as a Black child. Despite the weight of these realities, Jojo's capacity for empathy and love seems bottomless. He forms a deep—albeit complicated—bond with the ghost of Richie, a boy who died at Parchman. Richie seeks closure by learning his story from Pop, but he can only do so with Jojo’s help. This connection underlines Jojo's open-heartedness and his ability to listen and empathize with others' pain. Although Richie annoys and frustrates him, he does as much as he can to help him reach the afterlife he’s seeking. He’s willing to give everyone in his life a chance to prove themselves, although by the end of the book his resources for forgiving Leonie are exhausted. Jojo's character arc is in many ways a classic coming-of-age story, as he works to overcome the burdens of his family’s many ghosts, to understand the history of his mixed lineage, and to survive the injustices of the past and present in Mississippi.
