PositiveThe Portland Press Herald\"Because we spend the entire novel inside Charles’ head, our access to other characters is limited, making for a slower, ruminative read in the novel’s first half. When it unfolds, Talty’s gift for dialogue, action, tension, clashes and vivid first-person narration creates wonderful urgency and momentum ... Talty has proven he’s skilled at crafting first-person male narrators: smart, sympathetic men who are struggling and wounded, blinkered by their flaws and prone to royally screwing up, but with a palpable longing for meaningful connection ... Because our understanding of the other characters is limited to Charles’ perspective, their motivations can be somewhat obscure ... Talty has the writing chops and heart to expand his fictional universe and widen the lens — bringing in additional perspectives, raising up more voices and stories. It will be a gift to readers, and to Maine literature, when he does.\
