Eleanor Kriseman pulls us right into its young narrator’s world ... she’s a sure-footed guide to the novel’s world, giving Callie a narrative voice whose cool tone and wry humor keep her story genuinely affecting rather than melodramatic ... She has secrets of her own, and Kriseman makes us care about where they take her.
The Blurry Years, a debut novel by Eleanor Kriseman, is the kind of coming-of-age tale that we need ... It’s also a deceptively simple novel. No fancy narrative tricks, no framing devices, no division of the action into distinct cinematic acts—just Callie’s story, as she lives it, in lean and attractive prose ... Kriseman distinguishes herself by making Florida rather despicable and exploitative, blinding its residents with thick heat and an empty sun ... Callie is a heroine to remember.
The interrelated pieces that make up The Blurry Years hum with such insight and understanding that the whole feels strikingly personal ... The Blurry Years is skillfully unsettling in its unfiltered look at a girl simmering in ongoing crises over which she has no control.
...assured and affecting debut ... The novel’s complicated mother/daughter relationship is provocative and richly developed, and Jeanie is an unforgettable, complex character ... Despite its too-neat ending, Callie’s is an honest and memorable story ... Kriseman’s is a new voice to celebrate.
That her own rueful self-awareness can’t stop her self-destruction is much of the book’s power—so much so that when Kriseman tries to course-correct in the final chapters, it feels artificial ... An elegant, but uneven, glimpse into the life of a memorable protagonist.
