Point of View

Each of the 11 short stories in this collection features a different character's perspective; most feature first-person narrators, though a few are written in third person. The first four stories, “Last Night,” “Slumberland,” “Hill of Hell,” and “Cult of Mary,” are all written in first person and past tense by female narrators reflecting on their feelings about death and loss. While the circumstances each is experiencing are slightly different, there are similarities among their stories, particularly as they all feel a sense of loneliness and isolation precipitated by their losses.

“Lizards” is written in third person omniscient, allowing the author to highlight the vastly different perspectives of a husband and wife as they have an argument. The reader sees that the husband is using manipulation tactics to discount the wife's opinion, in part because he is a misogynist and does not believe her opinion is as...