Myers uses the two types of narration – Steve’s journals and his film script – as a means of showing how people create distance between their thoughts, themselves and their actions. When Steve writes in the journal, we get an insight into how he feels. But when he writes about his crime, he uses the film script to distance himself from this act.
That is what the author tries to do. Does it work? We are used to watching movies, and a film script – which provides the opportunity to use techniques of a film, like long shots and other details that a play script cannot – is a bit closer as a traditional narration to set the scene and the mood. But it is still often more difficult to read a text, which is written like this, than a typical narration. Here, Myers is writing what looks like the film, but doesn’t this make it much more difficult to understand the book? Between journal entries and the film script, we get a number of flash-backs. To my mind, this is not a simple narrative in chronological sequence. It’s difficult to understand the background story, but these narrative techniques give the readers the possibility of a change. It would be boring if every book you read is written the same way. Therefore, it’s useful to think about new techniques, to use them and to keep the people to enjoy reading a book.

Julia J.