Spare is a memoir that weaves personal history, research, found documents, and present-day narrative. Some recurring sections are epistolary, some concern a single character, others are found correspondence. The book incorporates the lexicon of online forums, the history of eugenics in Maine, facts about the region's drug epidemic, and internal dialogue. Sections braid and layer, providing texture and context to complex themes that include personal and social accountability, privilege, prejudice, socio-economic class, family legacy, and the unreliability of truth.