What Role does Confession play in the novel?

Melinda's life revolves around keeping secrets. Much of what she tells readers is a confessional. Her rape and subsequent feelings around it are, for the most part, kept as guilty secrets that only the reader knows, Melinda is of course a teenager who is confused, scared, and frustrated. The reader uses her diary-like narrative as a guide into the mind of Melinda and her literal and the metaphorical room she has locked herself into.