RaveThe Brooklyn RailA sharply-written character study ... Starts out sprinting, overflowing with humor and paranoia ... The prose is clever ... Stinson’s debut is a darkly funny exploration of a traumatized mind and the arduous path toward healing ... May offer readers new neural pathways, which is all that a great work of fiction can ask to do.
RaveBrooklyn RailI am moved by the way Percy’s own PTSD informed the storytelling in Girls Play Dead. The curiosity, searching for patterns in her reporting, finding recognition in other’s stories, and circling back to the self, her own memory. The structure of the book mirrors the intricacy of a mind healing, not by any means linear. Girls Play Dead doesn’t ask why abuse happens, but how we survive violation, how we respond to fear, and how we tell our stories.
