Agbaje-Williams writes in a fluid, conversational style that dissolves paper and ink into sound waves. Arranged in three acts — I mean, chapters — the novel is so theatrical in its structure and immediacy that the moment you finish reading it, you’ll imagine you actually heard it ... [A] crafty novel ... This comédie à trois moves along so briskly and with such sly wit that it’s easy to overlook how the novel teases issues of class and race.
Tightly constructed ... A mashup of domestic noir and comedy of mannersa mashup of domestic noir and comedy of manners ... The result is decidedly more discomforting than amusing ... Of course, fictional characters needn't be likeable or sympathetic to be effective, but they must be interesting ... Agbaje-Williams fails to make us care how this power grab plays out.
Bitterly funny ... Agbaje-Williams' choice to forgo quotation marks is an annoyance. A few times, I found myself having to trace through conversations to figure out who said what. That's a small price to pay, however, for the incisive portraits she creates of her three characters.
Wonderfully witty ... This wry comedy of manners unfolds in a trio of engagingly self-absorbed, revealingly unreliable first-person narratives. Agbaje-Williams sharply renders each character’s unique voice, building depth and tension as the story is told and retold.
Makes for a quick and thought-provoking read that can elicit a cringe one minute and rueful laughter the next. The tightly wound plot drops a few revelations along the way, calling into question what the characters—and the reader—think they know.
Striking, often wickedly funny ... With three unlikable, unreliable narrators, and with both patriarchal arrangements and feminist alternatives depicted as self-serving transactions, Agbaje-Williams throws caution to the wind and pulls off a surprise win.
There’s not much of a plot, though it’s delicious to watch the characters’ long-fermenting tensions come to the fore. It lands as a discerning debut from an author who knows a thing or two (or three) about the ever-shifting dynamics of intimacy.
