Literary Devices in A Little Less Girl
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Setting
Even though Raynesville is in modern America, we're never told exactly what state. Dani just says that it's "hundreds of miles away" (4.10) from California. And while is a fictional place, Tess Oli...
Narrator Point of View
You ready for this? In A Little Less Girl, we get not one, but two first-person narrators. Lucky us, right? Jake and Dani tell their own stories in their own words in alternating chapters, giving u...
Genre
Since A Little Less Girl features teenage characters and specifically tackles a whole bunch of issues that young folks might relate to, it's generally classified as young adult literature. That doe...
Tone
This novel sort of fluctuates between several major feelings. On the one hand, Jake and Dani are pretty passionate about each and clearly falling in love. When they see each other, the stars align,...
Writing Style
There's not much in A Little Less Girl to trip you up in terms of flowery or poetic passages. Sure, there's a whole lot of romance and mystery, but all this is relayed in a pretty straightforward w...
What's Up With the Title?
Our title comes directly from the story itself. Though this passage doesn't appear until almost halfway through the novel, eventually we find out that this—"a little less girl"—is the super mea...
What's Up With the Ending?
After a whole lot of will they/won't they romantic tension and a bunch of last-minute reveals about the real story behind Amy's "suicide," our tale ends with a sweet moment between Jake and Dani:"Y...
Tough-o-Meter
Since this story takes place in a contemporary town in the good ol' U.S. of A, most young readers will have no trouble getting into the language and the characters. Our tale does deal with some tou...
Plot Analysis
The Blame GameEveryone in Raynesville blames Jake for the fact that Amy drove her car off a cliff. But Amy's cousin Dani, who's just moved to town, doesn't really believe Amy decided to end it all...
Trivia
Tess Oliver is probably best known for writing books about Custom Culture. Basically, these are just stories that feature characters who drive and build custom cars and motorcycles. Hey, maybe Jake...
Steaminess Rating
A Little Less Girl might feature a bunch of horny teenagers, but there's actually not a whole lot of naughty stuff going on. No one has sex, even though there is some pretty intense making out towa...
Allusions
Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights (4.9)Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (4.9)Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre (4.26)Edgar Allan Poe, "I Heed Not" (7.4)Mark Twain (7.8)William Golding, Lord of the Flies...