RaveThe New York Times Book ReviewBardugo’s greatest power is ushering readers of any age through big, cast-heavy books with clarity and narrative precision. She is great at crime capers and misdirection. She can move groups of characters around a made-up city or a magical New Haven with equal ease ... in Ninth House, [Bardugo] seems to feel freer to let us into her world more abruptly, with a bit more terror and a bit less hand-holding ... For any audience, Bardugo makes unexpectedly strong rivers of stories, purposed by swift currents of feeling. As you step further into the nasty and confusing dark of Ninth House, you feel for her caught-up characters. That’s what usually gets discarded first in these genres when writers get distracted by world-building or struggle with plot. But Bardugo’s characters feel real — and she doesn’t forget that everyone hurts.
Naomi Novik
RaveThe New York Times Book ReviewHere Naomi Novik has gathered countless old tales and turned them into something all kinds of new ... But she also borrows our everyday truths: the way a family can disintegrate into violence, the way a ghetto can be disappeared, how the everyday persecution of Jews can erupt into mass violence, the magic of young children becoming people ... In richness of ideas, and in glory of sentences, both these books are spectacular. Where Uprooted was clean and thrilling, Spinning Silver is like falling asleep in the passenger seat of a car and waking with a jolt of fear ... No one ever takes a lesson! Here our heroines do — and we finally get a perfect tale about the songs of ice and fire.
Joy Williams
RaveSlateWhen I was young I loved Joy Williams because I thought she was just so hilarious. When I got older I loved her because she refused to look away.
