The bulk of Mary is narrated in first-person present tense because I wanted access to the voices in the titular character’s head. But the most harmful, poisonous, insidious, domineering-yet-dastardly subtle voice actually isn’t hers; it belongs to the serial killer Damon Cross, a man who (not so subtly) represents the violent patriarchy we’re all of us inheritors of. I felt I could write this book because I know that voice.
