Take a story's temperature by studying its tone. Is it hopeful? Cynical? Snarky? Playful?
Intimate and Bittersweet
Corinna lets us in on some pretty personal stuff, including her grief and anxiety about her bodily changes (or lack thereof). She tells us, "My world is upside down and inside out and scrambled like mush and it's really horrible, and I feel like I have this great, big, giant emptiness inside of me," (10.1) and, "I've been feeling more and more self-conscious about being flat when all my friends are filling out and moving from exercise bras to real bras" (21.44). If this isn't intimate, then we don't know what is—she's practically whispering her secrets into our ears.
Corinna talks to us like we're close friends, part of her inner circle. We might not know what it's like to lose our mom, but we know what it's like to be confused by puberty. We know what it's like to wait for adult stuff, like your first kiss, and wonder if it's ever going to happen. And as we watch Corinna try to sort it all out—all while missing her mom—her tone makes it clear that for every coming-of-age victory she experiences, there's always a twinge of sadness, too.