Sharp and funny, but never cruel or condescending ... These rare narrative doldrums are made good by Newbound’s considerable wit, deployed through her astute use of the close-third-person point of view ... A quietly commanding debut by a writer of intense precision and restraint.
It does not make for pleasurable reading to be kept inside the egocentric but lobotomized experience of heartbreak, with its keynotes of hollowness and despair. It thus comes as a relief when Newbound introduces Elsa’s rebound ... Madison Newbound refuses her protagonist any obvious routes to happiness. What she offers Elsa, at last, has far greater worth: a reminder that what we ought to find in relationships, any kind of relationship, is something like mutual understanding, like recognition.
This debut is realistic in its portrayal of a listless young woman lacking direction, and some readers will find many moments to relate to. The endless repetition of actions and thought patterns that fill the first two-thirds of the book mirror the monotony of Elsa’s days, but they quickly begin to drag.
Underwhelming ... The novel shows glimmers of life when Sam enters the picture, taking Elsa to a swimming hole and later to a party for the festival, but the first half is bogged down with overwritten and repetitive depictions of Elsa’s feelings.
