Point of View

Unlikely Animals is written in the past tense and employs the first-person plural narrative structure. The narration is omniscient, and is from the perspective of the dead souls of Everton, who reside in the Maple Street Cemetery. Their point of view is limited to the limits of the town, and any events that occur outside this boundary are beyond their purview.

By narrating the novel from the perspective of dead people, the author enables the storyline to shed humor on the darker aspect of human nature. While most people live their lives with an existential dread of dying, the narrators have already crossed that threshold and do not view death as something to be afraid of. This narrative point of view embellishes the joys of living, despite the necessary hardships entailing in life, and evinces in the reader a gratitude and appreciation, and positions life...