Dessen has written Someone Like You in a very straightforward manner told from Halley's first person point of view. While someflashback—generally about past events in the lives of Scarlett and Halley and their friendship—has been used for clarity and background, the plot moves forward in a mostly linear patter. Flashbacks focus on Halley's trip with her parents and Scarlett's activities while Halley was gone, how the two girls became friends, problems with Scarlett's mother, and Halley's relationship with her grandmother. For the most part, though, the plot begins with Scarlett's frantic phone call to Halley after Michael dies and ends with Grace's birth. Dessen's use of foreshadowing is generally fairly obvious and reserved for fairly predictable events such as Scarlett's choice not to get an abortion and the consequences of some of Halley's actions while dating Macon.

Plot and theme are closely...