Lockwood's prose becomes crisp and matter-of-fact: "The tech could see everything - the head that was measuring ten weeks ahead of the rest of the body, the asymmetry in arms and legs, the eyes that would not close - but she wasn't allowed to say anything about it." The main character's pregnant sister, a cheerful participant in a world of vulgar, amusement-driven prattle, discovers that something is wrong with her child in utero: "Proteus syndrome," the chances of which were "one in a billion." The novel sustains this tone for so long that the reader must scramble to adjust when the lacquer of inanity cracks and all-consuming sorrow pours forth. Lockwood's narrator both mocks the portal and mirrors it, leaping from one subject to another, often in service of a punch line.
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