PositiveNew City LitA compelling work of literary fiction with just enough suspense to toe the line of the thriller genre ... She\'s a talented storyteller who makes it easy for readers to care about her characters and their wellbeing. ... Occasionally, it seems Turner attempts to cover too much ground with shifts in perspective between Langdon, Josephine, Lonnie and Wade. Still, each character offers valuable reflections as they navigate the intersection of race and class in their own lives.
PositiveReaderRossi takes a nuanced, personal approach to the historical characters featured in his book ... Vivid ... Rossi gives a largely accessible account of the development of eugenics ... Rossi also notes a range of early opponents to eugenics, making a compelling case that racist ideas and policies should not be excused as mere products of their time.
MixedNew City LitAn unsettling ghost story with elements of social satire, historical fiction and climate fiction, this ambitious book explores themes of guilt, memory and racial identity through an inventive but sometimes bewildering lens ... Barry certainly knows how to evoke disorienting physical and mental states; her vivid descriptions are not for the weak-stomached. She also has a sharp sense of humor ... While Barry’s style is distinctive and compelling, the structure of the novel’s central mystery is frustratingly redundant ... More successfully, Barry draws parallels between the hubris of the so-called Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration and that of modern humanity.
