RaveThe New York Times Book ReviewElegant, effortless world-building ... Immensely satisfying twists ... Throughout, I marveled at the subtle beauty and precision of Obreht’s prose ... By weaving in folklore and ample wonder, Obreht gives her climate fiction ancient roots, forcing us to reckon with the ruined world that future generations will inherit, while reminding us that even in the face of catastrophe, there’s solace to be found in art.
Eliza Minot
PositiveThe New York Times Book ReviewCompassionate and lyrical ... Maisie reflects on her girlhood, growing up in New England, college, pregnancy and her children’s development, among other subjects, which are interlaced with stunning descriptions of infants, nursing and family life ... The book is wonderfully attuned to the body and its sensations ... Warmer and sunnier than most motherhood novels I’ve read in recent years, taking a gentler and more firmly realist approach ... Our ability to truly experience Maisie’s desperation is undercut by the book’s languid pace. Descriptions of this anxiety can feel both heavy-handed and intangible ... Readers who crave plot may struggle, but Minot’s focus on Maisie’s interiority reads as its own bold choice. Here is a mother’s rich and nuanced inner life, here is an author granting recognition denied by society.
Colin Winnette
RaveThe New York Times Book Review\"Is anxiety the dominant emotion of our time? Anxiety, and its attendant feelings of fear and paranoia, abound in Colin Winnette’s richly imagined fourth novel ... Much of the novel’s humor and tenderness emerges in these scenes of family life, where Miles’s anxiety renders him helpless, despite his fierce love for his wife and children ... Though Users is told in refreshingly unadorned prose that lets Winnette’s characters and ideas shine, I must admit I read in a state of fascinated humility as a late Gen X Luddite whose only brush with V.R. was a college demo in 1999. More than the marvelously detailed fictional innovations or the urgent questions about how we’re giving our most private selves to tech companies, what stayed with me were the passages of startling beauty about Miles’s fear of death and aging, and the bittersweet experience of watching his children grow up ... Users is not only a book for today or a warning about tomorrow, but a timeless and moving story about fatherhood and one man’s yearning for a more meaningful life.\
