MixedWashington Independent Review of BooksThe book has some less-than-wonderful elements, too. The introduction is confusing, and the chronology is difficult to follow at times. The Freudian dream analysis is heavy-handed and problematic. And Ogden’s fictional imaginings of incidents in Poe’s life can seem presumptuous or disrespectful of historical facts. These flaws aside, her creative mashup of biography, history, literary criticism, and memoir ultimately resolves into a thoughtful and engaging narrative about why Edgar Allan Poe’s darkest stories still attract and fascinate us today.
PanWashington Independent Review of BooksThe story...resolves with a tidy ending in which Hana expresses anger about the sorry state of life and upends her routine in several conventional and obvious ways. Assorted bits and pieces of the plot are wrapped up in pretty paper with pretty bows. Others are not ... It’s never quite clear why we should care about the self-absorbed Hana or her inconsequential problems.
