Is it a uniquely female experience to meet another woman, fall for her brains and beauty and brawn and complications and want to consume her? ... The protagonist in Michelle Hart’s debut novel feels this pull on every page of We Do What We Do in the Dark ... While there’s all this talk about dystopian fiction set in worlds where men no longer exist, Hart has written a realistic world where women do all the talking, to each other, and rarely about the men in their lives. It’s a world that, though a little lachrymose, is still a pleasure to live in ... Hart’s novel does something exceptional that few pieces of fiction have done successfully: She presents the older married professor as not only a complicated figure worthy of desire and suspicion, but makes her a woman too. A weaker novel would’ve made the woman 'the man' instead ... We Do What We Do in the Dark has flashes of Sally Rooney’s Conversations With Friends, or Halle Butler’s The New Me. Sometimes it’s erotic, sometimes it’s devastating. Maybe this is what the new erotic thriller has morphed into in literature — less about the horror of sex and romance and more about the thrill of quiet despair and ruin. But the writing always crackles, written by someone who clearly knows what it’s like to desire another woman in ways you just barely understand.
On the surface, Michelle Hart’s debut novel might fall into the category of a book in which nothing happens. But that’s part of its subterfuge. This story lives up to its title; its meaning lies in its shadows ... While the theme of mothers and daughters overlays this book, it is a camouflage. This is a novel about the specific breed of crippling loneliness that often accompanies burgeoning queer desire ... In the end, this book is not an erotic thriller, nor a comment on #MeToo, nor an elegiac coming-of-age story about surviving a parent’s death. It’s more interesting. We Do What We Do in the Dark is a novel of coming out — not just as a queer woman but as a person. Mallory is sharing her story, embracing her desire and, in doing so, embracing herself.
... about so much more than just grief and how it can shape us, leaving us feeling directionless and searching for something to fill the void. The novel also deals with queer conception, sexual awakening, and coming out—but does the latter with a refreshing simplicity and lack of traumatic fanfare. But mostly, this novel is about the way a significant relationship can change us, reverberating for years to come ... an electrifying debut. Hart’s prose is concise and lyrical. Her ability to capture loneliness and the contradictions found in youth and grief is notable. Even if we ourselves haven’t experienced parental loss at a young age, we recognize the driftlessness and yearning of young adulthood. But it’s not merely its relatability and poetic nature that makes We Do What We Do In The Dark so notable—its artful narrative structure creates a profound reading experience.
Transfixing ... Mallory’s intense interiority and self-consciousness will remind readers of Sally Rooney’s work, and Hart’s prose is delicate and piercing. This is auspicious and breathtaking.
In tightly controlled, flattened prose that seems to match the emotional weather of her protagonist, Hart's debut observes the coming-of-age of Mallory Green ... Not a #MeToo story; instead, something more delicate and strange and, at this point, more interesting.
