Point of View

This novel is written in third-person limited, which means that the reader can only see what's happening from the character on which the chapter is currently focused. This is a clever way of writing the novel, because some characters are more observant, while others are very myopic. As a result, when the point of view is Sylvia's, for example, the reader gets a glimpse of what everyone is doing because she is an observant character. The same can be said of Carmen, who is an outsider anyway. By contrast, Bobby is so self-centered that when his point of view is controlling the reader only experiences his own thoughts and feelings, and the rest of the gang goes unnoticed.

Language and Meaning

Emma Straub's writing is very interesting. It is both simple and stark, but also requires the reader's full attention. In many novels, a reader...