Point of View

The majority of this novel is told by a third-person narrator with a focus on several different characters. Within each chapter, there are sections that focus on certain characters — Jess, Annie, Adam, and Nikki — as the events over the weekend of the launch party play out. Consider Jess’s opening in Chapter 1: “She had made it. / That was what Jess kept catching herself thinking” (9). These sections focus on what that individual character is experiencing or knows about the weekend, but none of these sections are told from the first-person point of view. This third-person point of view keeps the characters emotionally distant so the reader does not become too invested.

The Prologue of the novel is told from the second-person point of view. Consider this statement: “And at some point it dawns on you that whatever you do now, the result is inevitable” (2). Ellery uses...