PositiveThe Women\'s Review of BooksAs of this writing, we are living in a time when we are desperate for community and could literally be killed by it. Quarantine will save us, but isolation will hurt us. This is a terrible paradox that makes me cling to Manning’s writing like I now do to phone calls with old friends ... This book feels like a lifeline, a tether to our old lives and a promise that we’ll return to each other someday. It likely won’t look the same, but our communities will be stronger and wiser and hopefully a little more like Manning’s writing: not what you expected, but exactly what you needed.
Genevieve Hudson
PositiveThe Women\'s Review of Books[Hudson] unravels her stories with a slow, measured pace; she is equally fascinated with the quotidian as she is with magic; and her plots and sentences twist in ways the reader rarely sees coming ... Hudson, originally from Alabama, paints the setting with absolute care and richness ... The setting is lush, and the protagonist is lived-in, but I had some trouble keeping track of the many boys in young Max’s orbit. The football team is made up of Boone, Lorne, Wes, and Knox—monosyllabic boys who feel mostly interchangeable. I wish they could have been shaded as deeply as Max’s artist mother ... Hudson writes about these boys with more than an anthropological interest; she writes about them with awe ... The conclusion might be anticlimactic, but I guess literary fiction doesn’t owe its readers the same resolution as a straightforward superhero story, and Hudson more than makes up for a lack of plot with a memorable main character and a unique spin on the coming-of-age story ... Watching Max come to terms with his differences, watching him yearn for understanding, meaning, and a place in the world is a joy, despite the heartbreak that is inevitable in adolescence.
