Point of View

Kaitlyn Greenidge tells her novel We Love You, Charlie Freeman, from both the first and third-person narrative modes, alternating between modes based on chapters. The first-person narrators of the novel consist of Charlotte and Ellen. The third-person narrator consists of an unidentified storyteller who gives readers intimate insight into the thoughts, feelings, and private actions of characters other than Ellen and Charlotte, who would not be privy to the same information about the other characters communicated to the reader by the third-person narrator.

The thoughts, feelings, and private actions of Ellen and Charlotte are on full display for the reader, as revealed by Charlotte and Ellen themselves. Charlotte’s sections of the novel are a kind of personal confession to the reader. It is only natural that she narrates it. Ellen’s chapters are actually in the form of a letter she has written to...