RaveZYZZYVALike watching a magic show. There is suspense, but it is not the stressful, nauseating sort of a horror movie or domestic drama—it is the sweet suspense of enchantment. The reader has some sense of the hidden techniques being employed, but the final effect is still eye-widening and gasp-inducing ... It is startling how immiscible the various perspectives are, how out of touch with each other. Their shifts create intensely disarming conclusions, the most powerful being the collection’s title storyIt is startling how immiscible the various perspectives are, how out of touch with each other. Their shifts create intensely disarming conclusions, the most powerful being the collection’s title story ... Through this controlled and blunt study of human interiority, Hadley holds a mirror up to her readers without scaring them off. One is somehow implicated and forgiven simultaneously.
Deborah Levy
RaveZYZZYVADelightfully absurd, deadpan profiles of humans and sensorily laden descriptions of Athens, Paris, London, and Sardinia ... At its best with its wry humor and oblique observations of people ... The collectedness and composure of the book, however, makes its moments of emotional climax especially moving.
