The prose is lyrical yet stark, blending poetic descriptions of mundane objects (e.g., a humming refrigerator, a child’s forgotten sock) with sharp dialogue that cuts to the heart of each character’s turmoil. Similes and metaphors often twist unexpectedly: a mother’s smile becomes “a knife wrapped in velvet.” The tone vacillates between haunting melancholy and bursts of searing rage, reflecting the instability of the family dynamic. The "fix" in Chapter 3 is marked by a tonal shift—perhaps a sudden shift to the second person or an interruption in the narrative voice—to jolt the reader into empathy.