Point of View

The novel is narrated by an omniscient narrator who is able to present the perspectives of multiple characters. The narrator is all-knowing, but she chooses the order in which to tell the story. The first chapter informs the reader that three students have disappeared from River Valley School for the Deaf. This chapter is set in the present-tense. Chapter Two is set six months before the disappearance of the students. This chapter (and the next 58 chapters) are told in past-tense. Throughout these chapters, the reader is invited into the minds of all the main characters: Charlie, February, Austin, Kayla, and even Eliot. Chapter 61 returns the novel to the present moment introduced in the first chapter. From Chapter 61 through Chapter 67, the novel is narrated in the present-tense.

Aside from a brief chapter in which Charlie’s mother is the focal touchstone for the omniscient narrator, the...