The Perfect Match by Jodi Picoult

I am currently reading "The Perfect Match" by Jodi Picoult. The book is about a young boy named Nathaniel and his mother Nina, who is a lawyer to persecute rapists. One day Nathaniel stops speaking and is not acting normally. He suddenly begins to show signs of a traumatic experience and soon his parents are afraid. Nina then uses her past work to discover that all the clues add up to one thing, Nathaniel was sexually assaulted, even though he is only five. The book is mainly about how Nathaniel will tell his parents who molested him and how he will recover. I wanted to solve the social action question: "whose perspective is missing?".

I think that Nathaniel's traumatized perspective is missing in the story. The author splits the narroration between Nina, Nathaniel, the father (Caleb) and their friend Patrick. Whenever Nathaniel's perspective is written he always seems normal and talks about the toys he wants to play with. It seems as if he is completely unaware of why he cannot speak or of what happened to him. Without this voice the book is not as disturbing and the story becomes more of a mystery because the reader is limited. I also found the fact that the author included Nathaniel at all makes the story much more fascinating to read. This is because you really feel as if you're experiencing the story and trying to solve the mystery along with the characters. 

Nathaniel's perspective stands out from others, partly because he is the youngest character in the story and his mindset is clearly in the writing. Without the assailant's perspective you mostly rely on Nathaniel to help you understand what truly happened. If the molester's point of view was shown then everyone else's view would be completely obstructed. Perspective truly makes a difference in this story because the author used the craft of using everyone's perspective except the culprit. These are the perspectives in "The Perfect Match" by Jodi Picoult.