How can the first two stories, “The Head” and “The Embodiment,” be read as a pair? How do both stories explore similar issues around women’s bodily autonomy and societal expectations of womanhood and motherhood? How are their approaches to these issues complementary?

Chung frequently deploys the fairy tale as a narrative form in her stories. Discuss how her use of this form allows her to examine contemporary social issues or moral issues that fit in to both fairy-tale and realistic settings.

Chung’s collection features elements of multiple genres, from science fiction to magical realism. Do all these elements fit within common understandings of “speculative fiction”? How does the collection expand or challenge such understandings? How does it blend elements of multiple subgenres?