PositiveThe A.V ClubIn Eleanor Henderson’s proudly unsentimental debut novel, a teenager who ODs on New Year’s Eve unknowingly pulls together the friends and family he left behind. Ten Thousand Saints threatens to get cluttered at times, but Henderson reins in her sprawling cast with a series of contrasts and a neighborhood as a supporting player ... Rather than letting the time hang the plot, Henderson parcels out its history in tantalizing images and snatches of conversations, holding back where her protagonists might themselves miss the significance of their surroundings. Eventually, Ten Thousand Saints lifts Jude and his friends from myopia to compassion, but so subtly, it’s hard to notice a difference.
