Who is the narrator, can she or he read minds, and, more importantly, can we trust her or him?
Third Person (Limited Omniscient)
So the narrative technique is a really distinctive part of this book, isn't it? Though we're always one step removed from the characters—this ain't first-person, after all—we hop back and forth between narrators who are pretty tuned into Eleanor and Park's respective experiences, seeing their parallel experiences throughout.
What's the coolest thing about the way Rowell does this? She starts off giving each character longer sections, sometimes even entire multi-page chapters. Then, as Eleanor and Park get to know each other, she swaps narrators more often. And when Eleanor and Park are actually together in the same scene, sometimes she switches between them sentence-by-sentence.
It's a great way to show two characters coming together, and it's also an amazing way to show that one character's experience is sometimes totally different than the other character's experience, even in the same scene. Plus we get to spend enough time in both of their heads that by the end, it feels like we know Eleanor and Park each really well.