Honest, sad and disturbing ... Milas’s prose is laconic and wise, writing that gives it to you straight. At times Loyette’s voice is so frank and revealing, it sounds nearly confessional.
The terror in this novel is gothic and ominous but will nevertheless keep readers enthralled ... Milas served in Helmand Province and writes with clarity and precision about the physical and psychological realities of the war in Afghanistan.
Horror debuts don’t come much more impressive than this unsettling offering from Milas ... Milas is brilliant at making his lead’s eerie experiences and surreal hallucinations vivid, scary, and psychologically nuanced.
Milas nimbly and delicately balances the book between genres: It would be a relief for Loyette, and for the reader, if we could classify it... as horror rather than having, agonizingly, to view it as a realistic portrait of a war-damaged mind collapsing in on itself. The novel turns, as the gothic often does, on what happens when one can no longer distinguish inside from out, mind from world, fear from menace.
