Point of View

Most of Red at the Bone is told from a third person omniscient view. The narrator shows the reader the deep psyche of each of the characters, and this perspective is complemented by the occasional first person narrative. The novel jumps throughout time - beginning with the present as Melody's sixteenth birthday celebration and then having the characters sift around through their past - and shifts in points of view among three generations of people: Melody, Aubrey, Iris, Po'Boy, and Sabe. The changes in time and perspective allow each character to narrate their histories. Through this different perspectives, the reader comes to understand that memories are complex and each character views the same event differently.

Perhaps the starkest example of this is in the varied reactions to Iris's pregnancy. While Iris resolves to keep her baby as something that "would belong to her," Sabe and...