Explain Why a Novel You Love Is Actually Working

Loving a novel and being able to say why are different capacities. Understanding why a novel works, structurally, at the level of character, and in terms of the emotional contract it makes with the reader, changes how you read the next one. It also gives you language for recommending it that goes beyond 'it is just really good'. This analyses a specific novel on the elements that create a lasting reading experience.

I have just finished reading {NOVEL_TITLE} by {AUTHOR} and I loved it but I cannot articulate why.

Explain why this novel works:
1. The structural element: the primary structural choice the author made (point of view, timeline, narrative voice, or framing) and how it creates the specific effect you experienced as a reader
2. The character design: what the novel does with its main character that makes them worth following for the length of a novel
3. The emotional mechanism: the specific emotional contract the novel makes with the reader in its opening pages and how it pays that contract off or deliberately breaks it
4. What makes it last: why some novels stay in your mind after you finish and others do not, applied to this specific one
5. The thing a different author would have got wrong: the most tempting mistake with this kind of novel and why this author avoided it