PositiveThe Rumpus\"Shalmiyev’s prose is raw and tough. It crackles on the page with a fireworks display of sensory details, one after the other at times, impressionistic and complete in its scatter of color ... There are times when the sound and rhythm of the author’s words and sentences mirror the abuse she describes, her language like being hit, and then the soothing apology that comes after, the reassurance that the child is loved, that it’s being done for their own good ... This book is [Shalmiyev] recounting of the whole gory, beautiful mess, and it is impossible to look away ... Reading the final pages, I could feel the narrative open its mouth and bite down on me, ferocious, magnetic...\
