Point of View

Most of the stories in this collection are written from a single character’s perspective, using past-tense narration, either in the third person or the first person. There are occasional exceptions to this single point-of-view rule. For example, “Stand Your Skin” and “Calm with Horses” both end by switching away from the point-of-view character’s perspective. Meanwhile, “Kindly Forget My Existence” utilizes a narrator that is not permanently lodged within any of the characters’ direct perspectives. That narrator is more omniscient or observational. Regardless, the standard mode in this collection is to inhabit one character’s perspective in each story, thereby highlighting that character’s particular struggles among various challenges and uncertainties.

Despite the fact that the narration usually adheres to a specific character’s point of view, the narration does not often provide direct, explicit descriptions of a character’s thoughts or emotions. The...