Point of View

This novel is told using a first-person narrator, the main character, Icy Sparks. There are a handful of short breaks in this narrative style in order to share personal letters that one character writes to another, such as Virgil’s last will before he passes away. However, some of these letters are also written by Icy herself, such as one of her letters to Maizy following Icy’s tenure at Bluegrass State Hospital. Despite Icy’s behavioral problems and mental disorder, she is also incredibly perceptive of the subtle motivations of both the characters around her, and of her own motivations. For example, when Icy consciously dresses in a bland style for a day of class in fourth grade, she describes in detail her reasons for doing so: “I would make myself solid, dark, and impenetrable like the trunk of an old tree. From now...