Suspense is created for readers throughout the story. A large piece of that is the narrative point of view. John is our story's narrator, and he narrates from the first person perspective. He is just as clueless about certain things as we are, and that unknown quantity builds suspense. Suspense is also created in the first paragraph when readers are told that it is forbidden to cross the great river and look at the Place of the Gods. It sounds ominous, and the suspense of that is ratcheted up once we know that John plans to go there.

Another specific suspenseful moment occurs when John looks at the Place of the Gods and doesn't die. We are relieved, but then he decides that he has to cross the river and go into the Place of the Gods. He admits to us that he is crossing the river to his death. Once at the Place of the Gods, suspense is created by giving readers details that make the place both completely foreign yet eerily similar. Finding English letters and words is creepy, and readers begin to put the facts together that this story is definitely not happening in the past.