Things We Hide From the Light

Things We Hide from the Light is told from the first-person perspectives of its two protagonists. Using the first person builds sympathy between readers and even unreliable or negative characters. Here, as chapters shift between Lina and Nash’s points of view, readers can see two sides of the same events, factoring in how characters’ biases and opinions skew or misinterpret what happens. The result is a form of dramatic irony; readers know more than the characters do, so they anticipate Lina and Nash coming to realize what readers already understand.

Score creates a different voice for each narrator. Lina’s chapters are dramatic and action-oriented, the sentences clipped, the diction hard-edged and conversational. Nash’s chapters are more introspective and reactive; the sentences are longer and more terraced to match Nash’s meditative, philosophical perspective. The novel also uses the alternating points of view thematically. Since both narrators are scarred by near-death experiences, and neither can trust or rely on others, the shifting first-person narration demonstrates their compatibility and movement toward cooperation. As the protagonist characters move past their initial sparing and commit to each other, their