MixedBook ForumPerhaps closer to articulated impulses than fully-formed fictions, Gray’s work tackles our emotional realities through unreal set-ups ... It is this try-anything aesthetic that invigorates and sometimes undermines Gray’s new novel, Threats ... Here, through a mix of experimental writing and narrative drive, existential pain renders the world manifestly unfamiliar. Heavy as this might sound, this world is, for all its death and loneliness, oddly unserious. Gray’s prose is simple, at times beautifully so, and capable of lovely surprises. But it is also given to an artlessness that grows wearying ... Though it occasionally displays an absurdist wit, Threats often indulges in wacky repartee for its own sake ... Unfortunately, Threats never fully engages with the complicated experience of grief ... When Gray does pause to make thoughtful connections, her talent for drawing metaphorical resonance surfaces ... Franny emerges as the book’s most compelling character, and ultimately, it’s hard not to wish Gray hadn’t waited until late in the book to incorporate her perspective.
