MixedVultureOutward rage clouds the memoir’s best and brightest moments ... What’s always been impressive about Tendler’s work...is her attention to detail and aesthetics ... She’s clearly proud of the skill she’s shown, but it’s hard to grasp what the art ever means in her life because such asides are derailed — as she is — by memories of men. She undercuts the artistry of the memoir itself by dredging up the past, even when it’s unremarkable ... While Tendler’s confessional writing style is reminiscent of a long email from a friend or dishy voice note, her memoir is anything but a gossipy tell-all ... Yet for all that the memoir touts itself as Tendler reclaiming her own story, she comes back to men over and over again — focusing, blaming, and elucidating factors that feel neither original nor compelling.
Fern Brady
RaveThe New York Times Book Review... a testament to Brady’s quality of said character, her tenacity in the face of a world not yet ready to grapple with all she brings to it. Her memoir is not a journey of self-improvement: There is no concrete, happy ending outside of her eventual diagnosis.
Heidi Julavits
RaveThe New York Times Book ReviewThough thematically knotty, Julavits’s writing is a life raft: elegant without sentimentality ... Her prose is buoyed by a sharp sense of humor ... Directions to Myself is less a memoir of parenting and more a memoir of developing personhood.
Amelia Possanza
PositiveThe New York Times Book Review[Possanza] has bridged the historical and the memoir ... The more time she spends covering her bases, the more difficult it is to see what’s under her feet. This is a shame because Possanza tells compelling, loving stories of lesbians who were not yet “lesbians,” as we’ve come to know them.
Jacqueline Holland
MixedThe New York Times Book ReviewHolland seems determined to avoid the eroticism of other recent vampire tales ... In fact, The God of Endings and its protagonist so vehemently refuse to be defined by the monster of it all that it’s hard to tell whom the book is for. It’s too vampire-evasive for the monster crowd, too ethereal for the supernaturally averse ... The 1830s, the 1940s and even 1984 don’t feel all that different. Lacking in immersive world-building, these sections are repetitive ... Holland’s lush descriptions help to transcend the familiar beats and cyclical structure of The God of Endings.
