Point of View

The novel is told in a limited third-person past by a narrator who focuses on the perspective of Miranda, the 13-year-old protagonist of the novel. Because much of the novel deals with the supernatural ability of the dollhouse to show Miranda scenes from her house in other times, the third-person narrator helps to establish the fact that Miranda is not hallucinating or making things up. In opposition to a first-person narrative, that might leave open the reliability of the first-person narrator, the third-person narrator has authority over reality, and the reader is never left to question whether or not Miranda is really looking through the dollhouse windows into another time.

Because of the focus on Miranda, her perspective alters the way readers approach the themes and plot developments of the novel. While the story covers a large number of dark topics, including child abuse and...