PositiveNew York Times Book ReviewAchingly beautiful ... Sullivan portrays Percy tenderly, as though his entire being is rooted in the resentment of hunger of any kind ... Charged moments...are often blurred by Sullivan’s excessively poetic language, which makes it difficult to understand exactly what is happening. ... Still, Big Girl triumphs as a love letter to the Black girls who are forced to enter womanhood too early — and to a version of Harlem that no longer exists.
Angie Thomas
RaveTIMEThomas’ genius is her ability to craft one man’s history in a way that illuminates the forces that brought us to this critical juncture ... Thomas’ book holds a universal truth: Regardless of mistakes made, there is a way to break through concrete, to bloom wildly with freedom. It is possible to take all that is hard, cold, grey and transform it to a thing of unexpected beauty. But it requires all those around us to tend and cultivate.
Julia Alvarez
RaveThe Women\'s Review of Books... masterful simplicity ... Alvarez summons the words from the lit canon with the terrific device of Antonia’s musings. Phrases are plucked with logical need yet emerge uninvited
from the long dead to those still living and kicking, in order to celebrate the
gifts we can enjoy but also to take those gifts to task ... Alvarez’s slender novel is a reminder that in the hands of a master, a simple story of loss and love can be fresh and devastating.
