MixedThe New York Times Book ReviewRefreshingly, the novel disregards the predilections of contemporary literary fiction and instead veers toward allegory ... characters lack agency ... In so severely limiting her heroine’s humanity, Rainsford has set herself a difficult task, at which she only partially succeeds. Ada is a kind of golem, created by her father out of a tree branch, and her childlike voice tends toward quick, superficial narration. But when the book slips into horror at the end, it becomes legitimately frightening ... What’s best in the novel is its idiosyncratic vision of the meaning of girlhood and first love. Rainsford draws the coercions of men without contemporary political referents, the natural world without the fatalism of typical eco-horror. The book refers to itself only, and it is fertile ground for pairings ... But if a story is to be this fast-paced, it ought to be more explicit about its intentions; all the subconscious, blink-and-you’ll-miss-them allegories give the feel of a maddening puzzle. Those excellent late horror scenes, and the angst-ridden, semi-creaturely protagonist, deserved more time to develop.
