Passion

What is the author's style in Passion by Lauren Kate?

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The point of view of this novel is first-person, limited omniscience told in past tense narration through the varying perspectives of Lucinda and Daniel. Because this is the third book in a series of four, the characters have access to much information and history that affects their actions in Passion, by which the reader may be confused if they haven't read the previous novels. For the most part, both Lucinda and Daniel's point-of-view is completely reliable. It is interesting for the reader, however, that Lucinda and Daniel experience the same events but narrate them differently. In this way, much of the novel's mystery and suspense is created as Lucinda struggles to discover many secrets that the reader is privy to through Daniel's thoughts. Much of the novel is centered around Lucinda's personal journey to understand her hidden histories, so she he has no reason to twist the truth for the reader. She is plainly and openly honest about his fears, his insecurities, and his vulnerabilities throughout life.

The novel is split evenly between exposition and dialogue. The exposition is important because it helps keep the reader focused closely on the main character, Lucinda. Because Lucinda spends much of the novel moving from place to place, and history to history, much of the exposition is descriptive, creating new worlds for the reader at every chapter. Much of the dialogue, particularly in the end chapters of the novel, is between characters openly discussing their motivations and diabolical plans. This method of sharing information with the reader is weakly constructed and results in unbelievable, unrealistic dialogue. It is clear that Lauren Kate does not trust her readers to understand nuance, or to interpret motivation through action, so she bluntly, and repeatedly, states the obvious in a way that, unfortunately, talks-down to her young adult readership.

Source(s)

Passion, BookRags