Point of View

The story is told from the first person, past tense point of view – specifically, that of narrator Marlee. There are hints in the book’s first chapter that Marlee is telling the story of her thirteenth year from an older perspective: that is, the older Marlee is recounting what happened when she was younger. Here there are two important points to note. The first is that there is no reference to just how old “older” Marlee actually is. The second point to note is that there are no interjections from “older Marlee” anywhere in the narrative – no comments, no analysis, no interpretations. The story is told as “young” Marlee experienced it and thought about it, an authorial choice that draws the reader closer to Marlee’s experiences.

What’s particularly interesting about this book is how the author integrates the character’s identity with the...