In Armageddon Summer, chapters alternate between the viewpoint of two characters who speak in first-person narration.

Yolen wrote for Marina and Coville for Jed.

The result is an impressive sense of focus, as each character brings a different perspective to the same events. Because the authors are well matched, their characters' distinctive voices achieve equal depth and strength.

The chapters written in the voices of "Marina" and "Jed" are often interspersed with brief pieces that present additional perspectives on characters, setting, and action. The first, for example, constructed as an excerpted FBI file, supplies information about Reverend Beelson's past. Drafts of letters written by Myrna Marlow shed additional light on her character and that of her husband, Harmon. Texts of sermons delivered by Reverend Beelson provide insight on the nature of his preaching. Such pieces as these and others allow the reader to know what cannot...