Mackenzie Fanheart

"'We all have things we're not proud of. I have a borderline obsessive love for gory horror films. You laugh at other people's misfortune. We're all terrible people.'"Mackenzie Fanheart is the titular character and main protagonist of both The Stalker Case of Max Fanheart and A Performer's Life Beyond the Drapes. In Stalker Case, she attempts to escape from an obsessive stalker. In Performer's Life, she and Greta go to college, where she encounters her stalker for the first time.

Appearance
Max is a young woman of relatively tall height and a rather well-built frame. She has pale skin, red hair that has a bit of wave to it, sea-green eyes, and freckles across the bridge of her nose and on her cheeks.

After her hair prematurely ages to white due to trauma, Izzy dyes it a mix of all shades of blue. Due to sleepless nights, she also develops dark circles under her eyes. Her manner of dress is described as somewhat plain. She mainly wears outfits such as hoodies and jeans, flannel shirts, long-sleeved shirts, leggings, and t-shirts. She also wears a dress from time to time, and always wears either sneakers or boots.

Max's body shape is defined as lacking any curves, and is considered a relatively plain-looking young woman (several characters note that she looks incredibly beautiful when all made up). She hardly (if ever) dresses up, feeling the need to only for an important event.

She also has a white semi-circle-shaped scar on her right ear from when Darius bit her.

She has a plethora of small scars on her forehead when she fell in the beginning of the novel, and the scars of the horror quotes Darius branded into her all over her torso, on her arms, and on the upper parts of her thighs.

Personality
Max has a casual, kind and compassionate personality. She enjoys befriending people who, in her words, look like they need friends, and is there to help people when they need it. Her kindness and sympathetic nature gains her many friends in both books.

An unusual pairing with her friendly disposition is her borderline-obsessive love for gory horror movies, most notably the Saw franchise. She smiles and laughs when watching these movies, and is shown to rant about them whenever they're brought up in conversation, which can give her a creepy and downright sadistic demeanor to others.

One of Max's main personality traits is her passionate dream of performing on Broadway, and her devotion to working toward that dream. She is an exceptionally talented performer, and an extremely dedicated hard-worker. She does all she can to improve her skills, including tiring exercise and vocal and dance classes.

However, Max's positive traits are also shown to become flaws for her. Due to her selfless nature, she often times neglects her own needs in order to care for others. This causes her to bottle up any pain she may be feeling until she eventually breaks, causing extreme crying fits (shown both when she stops Darius from attempting suicide, and when Greta becomes angry with her for ignoring her warnings). This is also shown during the climax of Stalker Case, where she is afraid to escape from Darius due to the fear that he will continue hurting and killing people to get to her. Due to this, Nate even tells her that she should "be selfish for once in her life".

Her dedication to bettering her skills can also lead to her overworking herself, to the point of passing out from exhaustion. It's also guessed that her hardworking nature also leads to her being a heavy sleeper. Max reveals in Chapter 10 of Stalker Case that she is demisexual, while in Performer's Life, it's mainly seen in the way she approaches relationships before her sexual orientation is confirmed by Mikael. Due to mentioned teasing and pushing from her parents, she would form platonic relationships with potential partners, either those who are close friends or whom she shares mutual interests with, to see if they are relationships worth pursuing further.

In The Stalker Case of Max Fanheart, she's also shown to be suffering from the trauma Darius has caused her. She has continual bouts of guilt and self-loathing, often times blaming herself for the situation she finds herself in, and worries for the well-being (and lives) of those whom Darius may see as an obstacle. She also suffers from slight irritability due to this, although she tries to hide this from close friends.

Her trauma is also shown to cause her memory to lack, shown several times both in the climax of Performer's Life and throughout Stalker Case, like when she forgets the name of Kumar's Therapeutic Boarding School, and even at one point forgets Darius' name.

Nathan Kemp
Nate initially saw Max as a new hire at the school. When he witnessed her performing Let it Go and saw how happy performing made her, he fell in love with her. After this event, he takes every opportunity to spend time with her (Amber even mentions that his eyes light up when he sees her). He's also one of two people to go out and fight Darius after he attempts to kidnap her. Nate is one of the few people who isn't disturbed by Max's love for horror films. Being a horror film fan himself (not as avid as Max, though), he finds her knowledge of horror and her love interesting. However, despite his love for her, he's unsure of whether to tell her or not, believing her situation will cause her to reject him. He eventually gains the courage to tell her his feelings and is greatly relieved when she tells him she will date him once her situation ends.

After she's kidnapped, Nate feels extreme guilt due to the fact that he had decided not to go back to the school with her. His love for her motivates him to rescue her, doing four days of investigating before finding out where she might be.

In the epilogue, it is stated that they started a platonic relationship, which later became a long-distance relationship after she moved to New York.

Mikael Karlsson
Before the Phantom production, the two were merely acquainted. During rehearsals, they become friends, though they eventually develop romantic feelings toward each other (Mikael realizes his feelings before Max does). Despite his love for her, Mikael initially refrains from telling her due to his leaving back to Sweden soon (and his apparent dislike of long-distance relationships).

Nevertheless, he tells her his feelings during intermission on opening night; even though they realize the relationship wouldn't last long, they decide to make it last as long as possible. During this time, Mikael is shown to be a very doting boyfriend. He continually buys Max flowers on performance nights, talks about her with his friends, and gives her his fair share of emotional support.

Overall, Max considers him the best boyfriend she's had, even if the relationship didn't last long. She is extremely upset when he leaves, though she is able to let her grief go and move on.

Austin Abram
Initially, the two seem to be very good friends. He seems to hold Max to a high regard due to her compassionate, affable nature, as he mentions that she deserves good friends. However, they later come to develop feelings for each other during preparation for the Into the Woods production. Following the opening night performance, the recognize their feelings for each other and almost become intimate before a scare from the Wolf-Masked Assassin makes Max change her mind.

He's shown to care a great deal for her, as he was willing to fight off that Wolf-Masked Assassin from killing her (even after a brutal stab to the shoulder) and carry her back to her dormitory. Following the attack, they officially become a couple, and are shown to be very affectionate toward each other (he's even shown to be slightly star-struck by her after Trinity gives her a makeover for the Spring Concert).

In the Senior Year segment, after he realizes his homosexuality, his relationship with Max ends and returns to being a simple friendship.

Quinn Baker
Quinn met Max during the CMU Christmas Carnival Concert, where they bonded over their apparent shared love of gory horror movies.

During their relationship, he appears to be casual and caring toward her, though he sometimes questions about when they are going to become intimate. Though their relationship is platonic at best, Max still considers it a serious relationship; therefore, she is devastated to find him attempting to make out with Elizabeth, and to later find out that he's been cheating on her throughout their relationship.

After Max breaks up with him, he becomes very antagonizing toward her. He continually shouts crude slurs at her, insults her whenever he sees her, and shows hostile behavior towards any boy he assumes has feelings toward her.

Later, after he is attacked by Darius (masquerading as the Wolf-Masked Assassin) and is left blind in one eye and with a paralyzed hand, Max visits him in the infirmary, and the two make amends. Though Max makes it clear she no longer has feelings towards him, he seems to still have some attraction toward her, though he never voices or shows these feelings.

Greta Watkins
Greta is Max's very best friend. Sharing a dream to become Broadway performers, this dream started their friendship when they were sophomores in high school. They work hard to gain money in order to move to New York and learn all they can about the theatre business. Greta even joins Max in her part-time job as a children's birthday party entertainer.

The pair defend each other from any type of danger, Greta even drawing attention to herself on occasion to ensure Darius won't find Max. Max, in turn, will use weapons to her benefit if the situation calls for it. Each defends the other, even at the cost of their own lives.

The two see each other as sisters and do almost everything together, even going to the same college and taking every opportunity to have the same classes together.

During Max's situation, Greta does everything to not only ensure Max's safety, but make her happy as well. She suggests Max perform alongside her during her Popular performance and takes her on a shopping trip. Max, in turn, tries to ensure Greta's safety by having her stay with her parents.

In the end, Max even moves in with Greta as opposed to moving in with her grandmother.

Elena Anderson
Elena, Greta, and Max were all very good friends. After meeting at the auditions for CMU and again on the first day of school, they are rarely seen apart. Sharing a mutual dream to become Broadway performers, the three usually practice together and audition for shows together. Out of the three of them, Elena seems to have a better relationship with Greta. After her death, Max and Greta are devastated at the loss of a close friend.

Isabelle Maye
Izzy is one of Max's middle school friends and a resident at Kumar's. Upon meeting each other again, Izzy and Sarah jump up and hug her tightly. Despite not having talked for some time, the two click almost instantly. Izzy even volunteers to make Max a Halloween costume and dye her newly-white hair. She even risks her life to save Max from an attempted abduction.

Sarah Martins
Another of Max's middle school friends and resident at Kumar's. She and Izzy jump and hug Max tightly upon meeting her again. She resumes her friendship with Max, and does things to cheer her up, such as showing her a scrapbook she and Izzy made and doing her makeup on the night of the production. At the Halloween carnival, she is abducted by Darius and is used to let him into the school, much to her own disappointment and guilt.

Morris Kumar
Initially, Morris is somewhat annoyed by the idea of having someone hide out in his school, but nevertheless allows Max to stay by hiring her as a housekeeper. Overtime, he builds a friendly relationship with her, which seems similar to that of a father and daughter. He does all he can to make sure she's safe and becomes touched by the idea that she put her trust in the school to keep her safe. He is disappointed when he finds that she'd been kidnapped and allows Nate, Chris, and Kash to attempt to rescue her.

Christopher Fowler
Max and Chris' relationship is somewhat akin to that of a brother and sister. They joke around with each other and sometimes turn to each other when in need. He tries his best to defend her when Darius attempts to kidnap her and even volunteers to help Nate rescue her.

Karter Irvine
Max and Karter have a casual relationship. Karter is the one who stops Darius from abducting her on her first night. He acts as somewhat of a comforting older brother toward her, reassuring her that she isn't to blame for the situation.

Darius Anderson
Max absolutely despises Darius while he, in turn, is obsessively in love with her. He does anything and everything he can to take her and make her his. He has the twisted assumption that they are supposed to be together and is annoyed when she constantly rejects him. He will go as far as killing anyone who defends her, including her pet cat and her parents.

Before he fell in love with her, they were actually very good friends. He even saw her as a second older sister while she saw him as an older brother. Their friendship began when he defended her from an ex-boyfriend who was being rough with her. The cause of his obsession with her started after she hugged him as thanks for advice on how to deal with a cheating boyfriend. However, after she rejected him, he couldn't accept it and began stalking her.

During the Senior Year section in Performer's Life, it's shown that Max was initially developing feelings for Darius. After finding out that he was the Wolf-Masked Assassin and that he was obsessed with her, she became terrified of him; despite this, she still pitied him and hated to see him so upset. This, however, vanished and was replaced by contempt after he forced a blood pact with her.

He can be easily fooled if she feigns love toward him. He states that he has no desire to rape her, mainly due to his disapproval toward the crime; however, he has shown no inhibitions when it comes to molesting and harassing her.

Despite his deep love for her, he has no problem torturing her and even seems to find her suffering enjoyable.

Patrick Blythe
Patrick was Max's ex-boyfriend, and was shown the be abusive toward her. He showed up at CMU to try and convince her to get back together with him, which she refused. Afterward, he hung around campus to harrass her every so often.

After opening night, he confronts her and attempts to rape her, but is stopped and brutally murdered by Darius (masquerading as the Wolf-Masked Assassin). During this, it's shown that he may still have some genuine feelings toward Max, as he tells her to run while he's being killed, being concerned for her safety.

Performances

 * Wicked - Elphaba Thropp/The Wicked Witch of the West
 * The Phantom of the Opera - Christine Daae
 * Into the Woods - Baker's Wife
 * Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella - Crazy Marie/Fairy Godmother
 * Kumar's Musicale Production - All That Matters; Sylvia

Mentioned

 * Billy Elliot - Billy's Mother
 * Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street - Mrs. Lovett
 * Oklahoma! - Laurey Williams
 * Kiss Me; Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street - Johanna
 * Take Me or Leave Me; RENT - Maureen

Trivia

 * Preferred actresses to portray Max: Emma Stone or Molly C Quinn.
 * Meaning of the name 'Mackenzie': Comely; Child of the Wise Leader; Born of Fire:
 * As a feminine given name, it was popularized by American actress Mackenzie Phillips.
 * The name 'Max' (though used as a diminutive of Mackenzie) is a diminutive of Maximilian and Maxwell, and means "greatest".
 * The name 'Kenzie' is Scottish, and means "light one" or "the fair one".
 * Her surname, Fanheart, comes from a gravestone the author saw while passing by a cemetery.
 * "Fanheart" was initially going to be a temporary surname until another one could be found, but ended up becoming the character's permanent name.
 * The author has revealed that the made-up meaning of "Fanheart" is "make your heart flutter".


 * Max's favorite comic book is Witchblade and her favorite horror film franchise is Saw.
 * Despite being an avid horror fan, Max doesn't care for horror films with "stupid" plot lines, such as Jaws: The Revenge, Thinner , and Leprechaun.
 * She also doesn't like older horror films, like House on Haunted Hill or House of Wax . If one was the mention the latter or former, she would assume they were talking about the remakes.


 * The only horror films that seem to genuinely scare Max are ones with creepy dolls. However, she seems to have no fear toward Billy.


 * Max doesn't like novels because she considers them boring and time-consuming.
 * Max is a heavy sleeper due to her constant working.
 * Max is shown to become flustered when complimented.
 * Max is decently skilled in ballet, though not as professionally as Greta.
 * In both Stalker Case and the upcoming prequel, Max and Darius have corresponding hair colors:
 * In Stalker Case, Max has her hair dyed blue while Darius' hair is dyed purple.
 * In the prequel, Max's hair is red while Darius' is auburn.
 * This was a complete coincidence.


 * Max has a bit of muscle to her, as she spends most of her free time exercising.
 * Max hates romance movies because she finds them cheesy and repetitive.
 * Max is demisexual (where someone doesn't experience sexual attraction until a bond has been formed).
 * She self-identifies as heterosexual, but shows more aspects of demisexuality. This could be because she may not be familiar with the latter.


 * Her celebrity crush is Costas Mandylor, who portrays Mark Hoffman in the Saw franchise.
 * Darius is easily fooled if Max feigns love for him, but she avoids doing it because, if he manages to escape, it makes his obsession with her worse.