Take a story's temperature by studying its tone. Is it hopeful? Cynical? Snarky? Playful?
Heartfelt, Open, Honest
Kingston is intimate with this text. The book is pretty much like the flesh of her bones. The stories are her livelihood. The effect of this honest writing is that we readers get kind of enraptured. We're intrigued by what her stories have to offer. She's got all these puzzle pieces she's putting together. We're not really sure what the bigger picture is maybe, but there's something raw and beautiful about her stories. So even though they're uber intense and kind of crazy, we dig that.