MixedThe GuardianJanowitz’s greatest strength has always been her bluntness, and there’s certainly no lack of it in Scream ... When Janowitz gets coy or retreats into cliché in passages about her famous friends, it doesn’t seem to be out of discretion. You get the sense, rather, that it pains her to give readers the gossip they want ... Once you get over your disappointment at Janowitz’s refusal to detail her wildest nights of 'semi-fame,' the irreverence of an author who’s desperate for money but still won’t submit to expectations is thrilling ... rarely ha[s] the emotional impact she intends.
Ottessa Moshfegh
RaveFlavorwireMoshfegh’s debut novel mixes the setup of midcentury domestic suspense tales with the psychological richness of gothic literature, resulting in an unputdownable story where very little actually happens ... Eileen is an addictive psychological thriller, but it’s also a fascinating character study, from an author whose ascension to household-name status seems inevitable.
Dana Spiotta
RaveFlavorwireWhen it comes to ideas, Spiotta has always operated on an astounding number of levels at once...Innocents and Others accomplishes a feat like depicting both female friendships and friendships between artists, in all their complexity, through nothing more than a series of quiet moments scattered across its 275 pages.
Belinda McKeon
RaveFlavorwire[McKeon's] story of Catherine and James asserts the dignity of a relationship that has always been condescended to and diminished, surely in part because it makes the heteropatriarchy nervous, by treating both characters like discrete people rather than complementary caricatures — and depicting their friendship, love, codependence, and heartbreak in excruciating detail.
