RaveNPR... a true crime tale as thoroughly researched and reported as it is perplexing ... offers a deep-dive into rural Appalachia, a region of the United States that is little understood, and it digs into questions of how deeply misogyny and bias can run inside a community. It is also an honest and endearing coming-of-age tale — one that will leave readers curious to know what Eisenberg will write about next ... Eisenberg\'s growing personal commitment to the summer camp for teen girls, and to her friends in this complicated rural ecosystem, emerges as the living heartbeat of the book ... [Eisenberg\'s] relentless reporting and attention to detail are what make the true crime elements of this book so enjoyable ... accomplishes what any good murder mystery should. It shines a spotlight on a nexus of people and a place. Eisenberg\'s tendency to weave in references to writers who\'ve preceded her in the genre — Joan Didion and Truman Capote, for example — makes the reading experience uniquely thoughtful and introspective ... The insights into human nature are the real gritty, good stuff you get from reading a masterful work of journalism like this one.
Yiyun Li
PositiveLos Angeles Review of Books\"The book brims with love, empathy, and longing. The result is beautiful in the same way that sitting in a silent church pew is beautiful ... These conversations are a pleasure to read. They unfold naturally: intimate, playful, and affectionate ... Aesthetically, Where Reasons End is an austere novel, but there are passages with heavy weight. There are parts that begin to feel redundant and repetitive ... Ultimately, Where Reasons End is a tremendous act of empathy. Despite Li’s own warning to herself that a parent should never write about a child, she has channeled something powerful and true here. Her empathy and courage are what make the book work. Anyone who has ever wished they could talk again to someone who is gone will find solace in these pages.\
Rachel Cusk
RavePloughsharesKudos, the last installment of her much–talked about trilogy, which began with Outline and Transit, has a deceptively celebratory title. The book is not celebratory. In fact, the title is so slyly cynical—Kudos! (Chef’s kiss! Congratulations! Applause!)—I feel slapped by its subtle falseness. It is like a murderer saying \'kudos\' before pushing you off a cliff ... Her version of extreme skepticism holds women’s pain up to the light like a prism, turning questions of motherhood and personal beauty this way and that, refracting sadness and ultimately proving—through dialogues about literary elitism, cruel husbands, and the superficiality of success—that none of us are in control of our destinies ... The grotesque, meaningless perfection of this ending to the Outline trilogy leads me to one conclusion only. Rachel Cusk must be our era’s new feminist Friedrich Nietzsche. In any case, she definitely deserves that Guggenheim. She gets a \'kudos\' from me.
Lidia Yuknavitch
RaveGuernicaThe ideas in this book are spine-tinglingly good. Yuknavitch conjures a dystopia that feels at once outlandish and resonantly true. This is what great speculative fiction is supposed to do, offer catharsis for our anxieties about the future; anticipate and indulge our deepest fears about technology, and the surveillance state, and censorship, and climate change ... Yuknavitch is far from the only writer to tap into Joan of Arc’s soldier mythos in response to current events...But [her] re-telling stands out as uniquely vivid and electrifying ... the idea of living the next four years without stories like The Book of Joan would be a lot more boring, and painful. On the question of whether Yuknavitch will join the ranks of George Orwell and Margaret Atwood as an important voice in speculative fiction: I cast my vote for yes.
