comment on style/ language

Language is used to create both character and a sense of place in the novel. Otera is a fictional realm in a YA fantasy novel. As such, there are certain tropes that it follows within the language itself. Deka narrates with precise, formal language that we often see in fantasy novels. Everything she says is earnest, and she introduces the reader to her world as if she were a tour guide: “Girls who injure themselves before their fifteenth year are taken to the temple for cleansing, their families ostracized, their marriage prospects destroyed. ‘Despised are the marked or scarred, the wounded and the bleeding girls, for they have polluted the temple of the Infinite Father.’ These words have been drummed into my head from birth” (15). As we see here, Deka frequently cites the Infinite Wisdoms, especially in the beginning of the novel.