PanThe Sunday Times (UK)War makes tragedy commonplace, but this can get a little grating. Dark comedy in a warzone is a rich field ... The scenes with foreign journalists and Palestinians are witty and sharply drawn, but I found myself bored by Sara, who over the course of the book seemed to get worse. There’s something tiring about the fundamental conceit of Vulture: look at this terrible person, doing terrible things, in a terrible place.
RaveThe Times (UK)A deliciously silly novel ... A fun romp through New York’s restaurant scene and the world of the undead—albeit sillier than the traditional haunting ... The best thing about this book is the extraordinarily detailed food descriptions.
MixedThe Times (UK)A bleak, funny vision of a future where our sad world gets a lot worse ... The ideas animating the novel might be weird, but Murata’s flat style, and the disappointing final pages, leave Vanishing World feeling a little bloodless. It reads at times like an overstretched thought experiment of societal collapse, a social conservative’s nightmare of the death of the family unit.
Eliza Clark
MixedThe Sunday Times (UK)Clark is sharper when she’s less naturalistic ... The main problem with She’s Always Hungry [is that]...the worst possible thing always happens.
Sarah Hall
PositiveProspect MagazineThe book powerfully examines how disaster can remake people. Hall’s writing is sensual and urgent throughout.
