Desire

The theme of desire in this collection is played out from two primary point-of-views: feminine, and masculine; and two secondary angles: wanting, and being wanted. When Machado points at desire, she is organizing it around the central concept of who wants what; meaning that the thing being desired is objectified, and the person who desires has the power. There are nuances and moments where she breaks this model; however, this core concept highlights what is at stake with Machado’s character’s wanting: being able to have power over a person and their body. What complicates this desire is that Machado characterizes her stories with gems of humanization—telling her readers, essentially, that it is natural to desire, or showcasing seemingly healthy instances of desire, but are even the healthy instances still centralized through this problematized view of wanting?

As all-but-one of the narrators of her...