RaveChapter 16Bold ... Playfully confrontational ... The relationship between the supernatural and the everyday in Kirby’s writing imbues her protagonists with nuance and depth. The fantastical elements are imaginative and shocking, but never distract from the gritty human heart of the complex characters ... Kirby’s women are empowered by their complexities and wrongdoings, offering evidence of women taking up space in a male-dominated world ... These stories occupy a deft variety of forms — some experimental, all magnetic and accessible ... The stories of Shit Cassandra Saw consistently bewilder and delight. Ranging from mythic to futuristic and the mundane, middle-class crab shacks in between, Kirby’s sharp, double-edged wit sears the page with devastatingly smart storytelling.
Holly George-Warren
PositiveThe Women\'s Review of BooksGeorge-Warren takes great care of her subject. Skipping over music-writing tropes in order to incise something deeper—she focuses on the interplay between the musical, social, and cultural landscapes that Joplin navigated so bravely. This is executed with nuance and empathy, in a way that acknowledges Joplin’s agency and power.
Allison Moorer
PositiveThe Women\'s Review of Books... arresting ... Moorer weaves in the narrative of her childhood with shorter, more poetic chapters, ranging from lists and letters to short, evocative vignettes. The changing form emulates the way that trauma and grief shatter one’s reality in inexplicable ways. To me, the effect was spellbinding, inviting us into Moorer’s attempts to make sense of a heinous tragedy, and into the painful corners where those attempts fragment ... Moorer describes her family’s love for one another as \'the piece of paper and not the paperweight.\' But her affection for her mother and sister grounds Blood poignantly. The care between these women holds the paper in place enough to allow Moorer to write their story upon it.
