Point of View

The novel is written in the past tense and the first person. Technically, Evie is the sole narrator and point-of-view character. However, she often narrates in the first-person plural rather than the first-person singular. In other words, she often uses the word ‘we’ rather than ‘I’ in narration. When she does so, she is speaking on behalf of herself and the other teenagers. Thus, the novel’s perspective is often that of the group, or at least Evie’s perception of the group’s will. This idea is even more salient in light of the fact that Evie is herself an often passive character. She rarely takes actions that have a direct impact on the narrative, and instead, she focuses on describing the actions of the other characters.

Because of Evie’s relative passivity, the novel places narrative and thematic emphasis on many of the...