Despite some moments that feel forced and overly earnest, particularly in the ancient narrative and the Nikitas story line, Landau’s writing is accessible, specific, lush and transporting. Her research is rigorous and full of elegant effort ... At times, the novel’s disparate parts compete with rather than complement one another; some characters seem predictable, and certain ideas redundant ... Landau’s prose can also lift off the page.
A book that actually thrives in its accretion of quotidian detail ... This capacious novel takes its time, carving out space for reflection on the stages of motherhood, the terrified obedience of Ava’s childhood... and the murky nuances of her marriage ... A novel unafraid to be lurid and weird, as well as cutting in its excellent social examinations and microcommentaries.
Uneven ... Landau lays bare the challenges facing a working mother, but the novel’s climax, which is teased in a prologue where a group of angry blood-spattered women form a circle around a man and pelt him with stones, isn’t quite coherent. Novels like Donna Tartt’s The Secret History have tackled similar material to greater effect.
