MixedThe New York Times Book ReviewA manic road-trip-meets-crime-spree novel ... Filled with colorful characters ... If O’Brien had just set out to write a comic misadventure, the book would certainly pass muster as entertainment. But by adding a veneer of topicality, O’Brien aims to turn his characters into case studies for a nation’s moral failure. In doing so, he burdens the book with the weight of cranky satire ... O’Brien’s book itself has a narrative credibility problem ... It is only in the end that we get a clearer understanding of Boyd’s complex relationship to the truth, and explore the nuance of what might make an otherwise honest man devote his life to lies. But without the proper setup, the reveal has little impact.
Dennis Lehane
MixedThe New York Times Book ReviewThe turn, when it comes, is both satisfying and somehow disappointing. Until now, the high-wire act Lehane has managed — to craft a character thriller, a psychological nail-biter based on real emotion and relatable anxiety — has been the rarest kind of page-turner, one in which character, not plot, drives the book’s addictiveness. The thriller that emerges in the last 100-plus pages is more than satisfying on its own merits. Lehane takes all of Rachel’s weaknesses, the tools she has used to overcome her deep psychological flaws, and turns them into strengths in navigating a world gone mad ... But at the same time, there is something reductive about the last third of the book. A story that flirted with the unsolvable mysteries of a human being called Rachel becomes a simple tale of what happens next.
