Junot Diaz has a nice sense of his characters. With Oscar, we feel his struggle between his growing natural interest in girls compounded by peer pressure and his need to hold onto the part of himself that he knows is true.
When we get to Lola, we see a passionate need for release from responsibility and a desperate grasp for self esteem, her mother having dumped on her the former while hacking away at the latter. There is a language that Diaz uses with Lola that is both bitter yet hopeful.
It's about that crazy feeling that started this whole mess, the bruja feeling that comes singing out of my bones, that takes hold of me the way blood seizes cotton. (p. 72)
We get a feeling of movement, "singing out of my bones" and "the way blood seizes cotton." With this single sentence, Diaz demonstrates the anxiety of Lola's life, the push and pull that carries her through her days.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology