Point of View

The point of view shifts between Nikki and Kulwinder, with alternating chapters usually sticking closely to the perspective and interiority of one or the other. The narrator has limited omniscience, providing access to Nikki and Kulwinder's thoughts and, in one outlier chapter, access to the thoughts of Nikki's mother Harpreet, when she first learns about the erotic stories.

The two primary narrative voices echo the perspectives and attitudes of the characters they follow; in Nikki’s chapters, the narrator draws our attention to gendered injustices and the stifling nature of her parents’ and culture’s expectations of her. In Kulwinder’s chapters, the narrator is aligned with her more conservative worldview, posing such rhetorical questions as "Didn't [the modern, western women] realize that they were only looking for trouble with that crass and demanding attitude?" (22). These chapters let the reader see the world and young...