RaveThe Guardian (UK)Semple writes with immense charm The book fizzes with funny lines ... Buoyant and fun ... At times this merry chaos tips over into a less satisfying disjointedness ... Elsewhere, Semple’s energy and economy with backstory are brilliantly deployed ... The book is a zany high-wire act and the main plot, which at times seemed like a shaggy dog story, is ingeniously wrapped up at the end. For me, the whole doesn’t really cohere, but as Marcus Aurelius said, everything is perspective, not truth. I felt both cleverer and sillier after finishing this book, which is a lovely way to be left.
RaveThe Guardian (UK)Lily King is an exceptionally good writer. Indeed, she could probably write a book-length account of her most recent dream and I would still rush to read it ... In her hands, this story of first love between college kids is vivid, moving and witty. It unspools into a searching exploration of loss, mortality and the inexorability of time ... A delight: this is a book in love with the experience of reading, precise about the way certain stories and ideas powerfully affect us at particular stages in our lives ... We may be left feeling melancholy at the end of Heart the Lover, but, crucially, we are not disheartened.
