First-Person Fiction

I loved how compelling this piece is. It gave a completely bizarre and captivating experience which extremely differed from Ottessa’s earlier pieces. This piece is focused on the present which is a sharp change from the rest of the stories in this collection. It has a more urgent tone and the actions and thoughts of our narrator are more immediate. I think this style of writing accents the subject matter of this story very well as you are quickly taken into the narrators thoughts. The narrator, a younger girl, is convinced she is from another planet and wishes to return. This is a delusion perpetuated by her brother who feeds into the idea and seems to genuinely believe it as well. It’s obvious that the narrator doesn’t have a true grasp on reality. The girl shows a horribly misunderstood world view as many parts of the story show you the unreliability of the girl’s narrative.The young girl doesn’t seem to understand the emotions and reactions of the people around her. She doesn’t truly understand the consequences of the world as seen in her understanding of Jareks’ actions and the severity
This delusion seems to grow until the author disclosed how to get to the other world and the consequences it would bring. In my personal opinion I think this alluded to death. I think the other world they are from is the after life and the stories title is alluding to it being the classical “better place” people tend to talk about. I think the brother has figured death is better than life and has contrived this idea that if the return to it they would be set free. That they would be happier.