Point of View

I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness is written from the main character Claire's first person point of view. By writing the novel from Claire's perspective, the author grants the reader access to Claire's most intimate thoughts and feelings. Indeed, Claire's voice is often direct, unshielded, and raw. The author introduces these tonalities in the novel's opening sentences: "I've tried to tell this story a bunch of times. This will be my last try" (1). These lines convey Claire's desperation to relay her account, and her simultaneous desire for her reader's attention and patience. Over the course of the sections following, Claire's voice evolves according to her environmental obstacles and subsequent emotional frustrations. Even in the first titled section, "Ten-Item Edinburgh Post-Natal Depression Scale," the reader is able to intuit Claire's evasive nature. Instead of directly responding to or ranking the numerical items on the postpartum...