Point of View

Stephanie Powell Watts tells her novel No One is Coming to Save Us in the third-person omniscient perspective from the point of view of an unnamed narrator. This is reflective of The Great Gatsby’s Nick Carraway. The narrator of the novel is never named, but it is clear that they are close to those in the novel because the narrator has a detailed understanding of the town's events and the lives of the characters.

The narrator directly addresses readers as “you” several times as if an intimate story is indeed being related person to person. Thus, the narrator provides a kind of bird’s-eye view of the events going on, personally relating larger events such as the closing of Simmy’s down to the very dreams and emotions experienced by characters like JJ and Ava.

Language and Meaning

Stephanie Powell Watts uses simple, poetic...