Point of View

Throughout her novel, Vaughan alternates between Kate's first person perspective narrating for herself and a third-person omniscient narrator for all of the other characters. Kate sees the world through the eyes of an outsider product of the British meritocracy arrived in a privileged sanctum, and also as a seasoned sex-crimes prosecutor who understands the worst of the human condition. Even before the reader learns that not only does victim-advocate Kate have personal experience as an innocent victim of sexual assault, Kate's perspective conveys the novel's central moral authority, and so the reader can trust that while Kate is opinionated, she is also brutally honest. Other characters, like James, Ali, and especially Sophie lack the self-awareness and reflectiveness Kate possess, and are all in varying degrees of denial about themselves and their relationships.

Kate's sharp eye and acerbic insights into the issues of class, gender, politics...