Point of View

The collection is written mostly in the unnamed first-person narrator, with one story in the third-person omniscient narrator mode. The narrators offer their thoughts with a degree in confidence, and allow for the possibility of error: they’re capable of admitting that their thoughts and introspective moments are just that—thoughts, capable of being biased of error. An example of this is in “Eight Bites”: “My first sister, well, I thought she was dying. Being sisters, I thought we all were dying, noosed by genetics” (Location 2033). The pause in her thoughts to say ‘well,’ is indicative of the subjective interpretation—by saying ‘well,’ she is opening up the possibility that she is flawed in her logic, but that this is her thought. Many of the first-person narrators operate in this voice and style, effectively forcing the reader to contend with the nature that Machado’s...