The repeated use of pronouns I, my, and me further establishes that Dean is self-absorbed, especially when it comes to Leanne. For instance, though he's with Leanne in every other day of the week, he feels the need for her to be with him every Sunday, too. "Why would she want to go to church all day instead of being with me?" was one of the questions he kept asking to himself. What's even more disturbing is what he compared this emotion of longing with: "shooting a bird with a slug gun." The careful selection of the verb "shooting" implies that Dean shows signs of violent tendencies, which was characteristic of some domestic abusers. It also disturbs the reader that Dean finds that though he didn't want the bird dead, he had to shoot it, just like how he didn't want Leanne to be hurt, yet to satisfy his paranoia, he had to wrongfully interrogate her about why she was with her friend Rexie, knocking her out of awareness of her surroundings and causing her to be hit by cars. The use of first person narrative point of view henceforth allows Grace to portray the inner workings of the character Dean to therefore show the reader how obsession could drive a person into paranoia which in itself destructs the person emotionally and mentally. Not only that, but this paranoia drives people to think it necessary to abuse their loved ones. .
In comparison, Marney's story is told in third person narrative. This is an effective choice in the author's part to support the idea of how a house-bound housewife such as Marney is treated by her jealous, and verbally and physically abusive 'husband' Bob. The third person narrative viewpoint allows the reader to be distanced from the main character Marney which reflects on how distant and isolated she has become from the world outside her house. Like Leanne, Marney was kept to her partner to himself, as if she was an object of his possession.
