Point of View

The novel is written in first person from the perspective of Ruby Daly, a teenage girl with the ability to read and manipulate the thoughts of others. Because Ruby can read minds, the perspective is more global than usual. For example, Ruby encounters a group of adult agents from the Children's League and overhears part of their conversation. Based on that information, she reads the mind of one of the soldiers and learns that they plan to turn the children over to the government in order to collect the reward. Ruby knows their plan only because she is able to read minds, and she relates that information to the reader immediately. Without that ability, Ruby and the reader would not have known the plan until the agents handed the children over.

Ruby does not use her ability indiscriminately, which means she does not read the...