Point of View

The point of view of What If It’s Us is first-person, both when the narration is coming from Arthur’s experiences as someone new to New York and new to dating, and when Ben takes over as someone more experienced with his surroundings and relationships. Occasionally interspersed are excerpts from a memory with friends when the narrator was younger, usually to contrast with their relationship in the present, with everything remaining in the first person. The perspective shifts between the two main characters, staying chronological within the context, picking up right where the last chapter left off, and all narrators are consistently reliable. Constant comparison between approaches to their relationship lead Ben and Arthur to eventual convergence when they feel the same about each other in the end.

Arthur’s experiences are that of an anxious teenage boy, falling in love, and exploring an...