Narrator and point of view

Using the point of view of the first-person narrator makes it easier for readers to empathise with the story, with what a teenager experiences. The narrator also becomes likeable thanks to frequent instances of self-deprecating irony: “I shouldn’t have my whole family’s lives in my shaky, hung-over, no-longer-a-virgin hands.” (ll. 7-9); “I was so drunk I saw two dead cats so prodded at one to see which was real.” (l. 35)

The narrator in “Are We Nearly There?” by Kate Smalley Ellis has limited knowledge on the events and the other characters. Jen does not know what will happen while driving (if she will crash the car, or if she will throw up), nor what other characters, like Simon or her mother, think: New white hairs spring from her temples like...

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