RaveNecessary FictionScott’s riveting emotional book stands out for the strength of its writing and for its portraits of small town waitresses, factory workers and fast food restaurant managers not often seen in contemporary fiction. In all these stories, Scott pays attention to gender and class but never reduces her characters to their sociological status. All Scott’s stories have strong openings with well-chosen details that often subtly elevate the every day into the mythic ... The stories are long, but they don’t feel long as Scott takes the time to develop character ... Various knives feature as potent symbols (though never heavy-handed) in three of the stories and seem apropos to Scott’s vision in all of the stories in this collection of how relationships—familial, romantic, platonic—cut into us but also how painful it is when we try to cut ourselves out of them to become our true adult selves.
