Point of View

Ellen Hopkins tells her novel The You I’ve Never Known from the first-person, limited-omniscient perspectives of Ariel and Maya. Ariel and Maya have similar experiences, both dealing with Jason, and while their stories are eerily similar, they are also distinct. There is no one better to give these two a voice to their own stories other than themselves. Hopkins knows that people in abusive situations rarely feel like they have their own voice. Thus, the author allows the victims of Jason to narrate their own stories. This ensures that victims who may be reading the novel realize that they also have a voice.

Much of what a victim of abuse suffers is internalized. Ariel is opposed to speaking too openly about herself. The same is true of Maya, who commits everything to a journal. Readers gain a very intimate, firsthand look at what a...