Point of View

With the exception of the chapters which contain podcast transcripts, the novel is narrated by Lydia Chass, the protagonist, in first-person present. Lydia is a 17-year-old high school student intent on getting into an Ivy League school to study journalism. She is the only daughter of one of the most wealthy and powerful families in all of Henley—but in a town as small as Henley, this distinction does not do her any favors outside of Henley. Because of this, Lydia is very anxious about getting into the school of her choice, even though she is the perfect student. At the beginning of the novel, Lydia is obsessed with revamping her podcast to impress college admission boards with her gritty realism, so she enlists Bristal to add that gritty realism for her. However, soon after she begins her investigation into Henley’s dark past, Lydia...