Point of View

The novel is narrated in the first-person, always from the perspective of Graciela, a high school student processing her grief after she was sexually assaulted at a party the summer before her senior year begins. At that same party, she brings a boy, Lock, to the hospital and leaves him, too ashamed to face what happened. Anne-Marie McLemore does not place any limitations on the access to Graciela’s inner thoughts, allowing the reader to understand her true motivations, fears, and conflicts as she loses her magic and must finally face the consequences of what happened on that fateful night. Graciela is often a sympathetic character because her selflessness and struggles are plainly seen. McLemore does not hold back the explicit reality of sexual assault and violence in the interest of making the novel easier to digest for readers. She is writing about a piece...