Point of View

The novel is told in the third person, past tense, with an omniscient narrator and moves between the perspectives of the four central characters: Mark, Karen, Bobby, and Heather. The use of point of view is used to heighten the dramatic tension, especially through the juxtaposition of Bobby and Mark’s points of view, because the switches in perspective mean that the reader has access to information that other characters do not. For example, the reader knows that Mark is not mistaken in his fears that Bobby might harm Heather because the sections told from Bobby’s perspective reveal that he has harmed women in the past and is planning to harm Heather just as Mark suspects. The use of point of view also creates dramatic irony, because the reader is aware of Mark’s plan to murder Bobby when he invites him into their...