Passionate, Exclamatory; Casual, Laid-Back
Here's the deal: we've got two narrators in this book. So it's no surprise that we've also got two different writing styles. And when we say different, we mean it—we've got Juli's super excited style and Bryce's laid-back approach. But let's take a look at how these styles break down.
Juli's Style: Passionate, Exclamatory
If there's one thing we know for sure, it's that Juli's a passionate girl. With Juli, fifty percent just isn't going to cut it—she takes everything to the max. So it's not surprising that her writing style is passionate too. Just give that girl a topic, and she'll get all fired up. Check out Juli's style when she's working on her fifth-grade science fair project:
I'd read the chapter on incubation and didn't know where to start. I didn't happen to have an old aquarium lying around! We didn't happen to have an incubation thermometer! Would a deep-fry model work?
I was supposed to control humidity, too, or horrible things would happen to the chick. Too dry and the chick couldn't peck out; too wet and it would die of mushy chick disease. Mushy chick disease?! (6.43-44)
Whoa, Juli—take a deep breath. Her style has us feeling tuckered out. She's definitely got lots of intense feelings about this whole raising-chicks business, and she makes it really clear to us as readers. Just take a look at her punctuation marks. Did you notice how many exclamation points she uses? That's one big clue that Juli's writing style is just as passionate as she is.
Bryce's Style: Casual, Laid-back
Bryce is the king of casual. He's not about to start writing a formal essay for us, and instead he just wants to keep things nice and easygoing. Take a look at what Bryce has to say about Juli's passion for the sycamore tree:
Whatever. Maybe Julie's aesthetic sensibilities have been permanently screwed up by her father and none of this is her fault, but Juli has always thought that that sycamore tree was God's gift to our little corner of the universe. (3.12)
We've definitely got some casual lingo going on here. When Bryce says that Juli might be screwed up, he's keeping his style super laid-back. And what do you think of the way he says Whatever? We're thinking that his style is so casual it can also sound dismissive, like he just doesn't care.
But even though Bryce's style is super informal, that doesn't mean he's not using some spiffy language as well. In fact, sometimes he pairs his laid-back lingo with some pretty philosophical phrases, like when he refers to Juli's aesthetic sensibilities. That's basically a fancy way of saying that Juli has certain things she likes to look at. So don't be fooled by Bryce's casual tone—he's still a smarty-pants, too. Which is good, since he has to be able to keep up with Juli if he's ever going to win her affections.
Flipping Styles?
So for most of the book Juli is super exclamatory (yes she is!) and Bryce is super laid-back (totally, man)… But by the end of the book, is this still the case?
Once Bryce realizes he's smitten with Juli, he goes through some new passionate emotions—and sometimes he even has the passionate style to go with it. Liking Juli so much freaks him out, so he exclaims about it. A lot. Are there moments when you see Bryce's style looking a bit more like Juli's passionate one?
As for Juli, she ends the book trying to be less intense about her feelings for Bryce. Now we're not saying she's lost her passion—the girl can still exclaim with the best of them—but she also wants to chill out a bit when it comes to her passion for this blue-eyed fellow. So do you think her writing style has changed at all by the end of the book?