Point of View

The novel is told in the first-person past tense by the main character and narrator, El. El is an unpopular girl because she has a great deal of evil within her, which other people pick up on and prefer to stay away from. Even though she chooses to be good, and refuses to give in to her base urges, she gives off a vibe that Aadhya describes as feeling “like it’s going to rain” (113). Because of this, El is ostracized from her peers. The only person she has a genuine connection with is her mother. However, because her mother is the epitome of goodness and benevolence, it is difficult for El to truly relate with her mother.

Because of this isolation, El’s narrative perspective is presented from the outside of her society looking in. Although we join El at the very end of...