What is the author's style in Somewhere in the Darkness by Walter Dean Myers?

The novel is written in the third person point of view. Most of the narration is focused on Jimmy Little, the fourteen year old main character of the novel. The point of view develops an interesting relationship between the reader and Jimmy Little. However, there is some distance between Jimmy and the reader that seems to suggest to the reader that no one can ever truly understand another human being.

The point of view of this novel works with the novel because it fits with the plot of the novel. The author seems to focus on a great deal of unimportant details in his plot that have little to do with Jimmy or the events taking place in his life. This focus pulls the reader back from Jimmy, denting the attempt at intimacy between reader and character that is so important in novels of this type. However, the reader still cares what happens to Jimmy, though they are not disappointed by the mediocre end.