Point of View

The point of view within the novel switches between third-person omniscient, first-person plural, and third-person limited omniscience. From the changes in the perspective that occur within and between the chapters, it is clear that the novel functions similarly to the yearbook that the four main characters create, as a method of capturing their experiences during a time of great turmoil in their lives. That a single chapter switches from relaying the events of the past from the point of view of a collective narrator, assumedly Nick, Christina, Zola, and Matt as one entity, to giving more detail by using third-person perspective shows that the author intends for the novel to be read as a sort of memoir. This pseudo-memoir perspective reinforces the notion that the novel conveys to the audience the same emotional impact that the yearbook in the story does for the students.

The...