Point of View

The novel is written in the third person and the present tense. The novel’s narration uses a limited point of view, and so despite the fact that the point of view sometimes shifts between characters, the narration only ever conveys the interiority of one character at a time. Clyde is the primary point-of-view character in the novel, meaning most of the novel’s scenes are written from his perspective. This narrative choice places much emphasis on Clyde’s goals, struggles, thoughts, and decisions, such as his actions and thought processes following Paul’s kidnapping. In this way, Clyde’s struggles to be good parent in a dangerous place become a central facet of the narrative.

However, there are other point-of-view characters in addition to Clyde, specifically Paul and Kavanagh. Although Clyde’s perspective is the dominant point of view in the novel, Paul and...