MixedThe Times (UK)\"Brutes sets itself up as a sort of Gen Z response to Eugenides’s tale of male obsession (The Virgin Suicides is cited on all the publicity material). Its girlier, nastier chorus believe in horror more than they believe in beauty. They growl and spit and howl and snap ... The idea is interesting and timely—if only Tate had stuck to the point. As well as the \'girl gone missing\' storyline, it’s also a collective coming-of-age saga, touches on grooming in Hollywood, and there is a final descent into the supernatural through a \'monster\' that lurks in the lake ... where her prose shines is in its descriptions of the ragged, hollowed-out landscape of its west coast...And she conveys well America’s distinctive mix of gaudy capitalism and zealous faith ... Often, though, the writing becomes overblown ... This is Tate’s first novel and she has yet to find her feet in the form.\
