Point of View

The novel is written in the first-person present tense and is told from Jessie Holmes's point of view. The point of view is also limited in that the reader experiences only what Jessie does; as she discovers new pieces of information, the reader also becomes aware of them. The narration also presents the reader with all of Jessie's inner thoughts, feelings, and monologues, allowing an insight directly into the mind of a teenage girl as she navigates her mother's death and moving to a new city. The reader, then, is capable of judging when Jessie's emotions are justified and when they may be misplaced, which creates a separation between audience and character. This becomes especially true as Jessie begins to hazard guesses as to the identity of SN. The reader is left to determine whether the guess is rational or not based on the exact...