Point of View

The vantage point of an omniscient third-person narrator mirrors the narration of traditional fairy tales. This perspective facilitates greater freedom in the plot compared to a limited third-person narrator or a first-person or multiple subjective narrators: The omniscient third-person teller can travel through longer periods of time and across more space in fewer pages, which enables the author to start the story in 1968 peering in on one generation of characters and to end in 2015 with another generation, without eliciting whiplash in the novel's pacing or narrative arc.

Language and Meaning

In tune with the narrator's definition of the novel as a "fairy tale" (3) set in a modern-day urban landscape, the author syncs modern terminology with fantastical language. References to technology like smartphone applications, Facebook, and online trolls juxtapose relics from traditional lore, like witches and trolls. By conflating the language and imagery surrounding these two...