Shooting the Moon Writing Style

Intimate, Conversational

We are like the BFF Jamie never had—or the ones who ditched her when they moved away to different army bases. Jamie talks to us like she knows us; she's incredibly intimate and conversational with us, just like a friend would be. When she has to talk to her dad about keeping Hollister put, Jamie explains to us:

I sat down on the grass beside him and plucked a few blades. I didn't know how to say what I wanted to say. I needed a strategy, but I didn't have one. I knew I was about to ask something impossible. How do you go about doing that? (13.2)

It's as though she's talking directly to us, right? We almost want to answer her with some advice. (Almost.) The style makes it seem like we're very friendly with one another. In the above passage, she basically turns to us for advice. We can't give it, of course, since she's a fictional character in a book, but we want to—the sincerity with which she shares her story and her conversational way of communicating has us practically responding aloud at times.