PositiveThe New York Times Sunday Book ReviewVividly worded, exuberant in characterization, the novel is a wild ride: Russell has style in spades … If Russell’s style is a North American take on magical realism, then her commitment to life’s nitty-gritties anchors the magic; we are more inclined to suspend disbelief at the moments that verge on the paranormal because she has turned Swamplandia! into a credible world. Her first-person narration is not a transcription of a 13-year-old voice, but an evocation, in adult language, of a barely adolescent mind-set. This allows for a dazzling level of linguistic invention … If the gothic whimsy of this novel is sometimes too self-conscious, the pleasures it offers are unforced.
