A speculative memoir in experimental poetry, "necessary and sufficient conditions: the vulture girl" begins with the odd allegation of the author's mother that the she had been (unbeknownst to her) born a twin. This begins a line of introspection that introduces the reader to a handful of inner guardians who live outside of linear time. A chapter for each: twin, rabbit, old stag, little wing, vulture, fawn, and tornado, these have protected and continue to protect the author, aka "the girl." Over the course of the book, they, and her search for them, help her to repair and reintegrate traumatic childhood experiences presented in fragmented narratives.

"How do we organize our “residual genetics” to form a raw or emergent humanity? Deploying feral subjectivities, Carrie Nassif attends to questions of trauma and healing, with particular attention to the protection and care afforded by entities as various as the moon and a stag. the vulture girl depicts bodies at the limits of what they can tolerate, with an emphasis, also, on the importance of rest  Whether this corollary or spacious potential is speculative (hoped-for) or built (present in the text) was, for me, though it might not be for you, the hope of this book."

—Bhanu Kapi