Point of View

The novel is written without a narrative voice; it is comprised almost exclusively of dialog, using only dashes (--) to mark a change in speaker. Some other ways of conveying information do appear, such as the surveillance report conducted on Molina after his release and the criminal record of both prisoners, but there is no exposition whatsoever. Internal thoughts are represented in italics, and they can stand alone or intrude on words that the characters are actually speaking.

This innovative means of storytelling means the reader is largely on his or her own in an attempt to mentally construct what the characters look like, an important aspect of a novel whose title betrays its manipulation of appearances and gender. At first, the Spider Woman is assumed to be female, but it is revealed at the end that the title refers to Molina himself. Without the...