What is the author's style in Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden?

The novel starts in the third-person point of view and then continues from Liza's point of view as she tells the story of Annie and herself. It ends again in the third person.

Interestingly the sections from the third person represent Liza as more vulnerable than she represents herself in the first person. While in the third person, which occurs in present time, she is at university and perhaps more comfortable with who she is, in the first person point of view, though she knows she is different, she is always trying to fit in. In particular she accepts the role of school president. The rest of the first person point of view shows how she works herself up to the point where she fully confident in herself.

From this perspective, Liza's point of view never quite seduces the reader as it would if she was a more confident character throughout. The reader sees immediately how ridiculous the rules are at Foster's Academy and that Liza has the wrong idea about Sally. The reader is always one step ahead of Liza and cannot always believe how naive she is being.

It is Annie who shows Liza how ridiculous many elements of her life are. In particular she tells her no one in her school would have been punished for ear piercing. As their relationship becomes stronger so does Annie's point of view. By the end Liza represents herself as virtually unaffected by the school's opinion of her sexuality.