Point of View

The novel is narrated by Natsuki in the past tense. Natsuki is 11 when the story begins. She is an imaginative and creative girl, who presents her fantastical imaginings as fact to the reader right from the start, as we see here in the first chapter: “I took Piyyut out of my bag. He looked like a white hedgehog plush toy, but actually he was an emissary sent by the Magic Police on Planet Popinpobopia. Piyyut had given me the magic wand and mirror to help me use my magical powers” (6). Natsuki’s voice guides the whole novel, and her imagination transforms what might be a “realistic” novel and plot into magical realism.

Natsuki looks at the world as a giant factory dedicated to producing babies. As she embraces her “alien eye,” she begins to look at the world from a non-human perspective that embraces rationality...