Runcie...has created something so delightfully snackable that you may, as I did, gulp it down in two or three sittings ... One flaw with Runcie’s novel is that this is something we are repeatedly told, rather than shown ... Hayley, unfortunately, never quite comes to life ... The result feels like a missed opportunity to interrogate some important questions ... Readers may leave Runcie’s novel feeling that some of these questions go unanswered, but this deeply entertaining novel is nonetheless well worth the price of admission.
Accomplished ... This is a smart, sharp and compulsively readable first novel that provides food for thought on a variety of complex topics ... A novel isn’t carried by its big ideas alone. It needs strong characters to convey them and react to them. Fortunately, Runcie’s creations are forceful presences, all the more so because they are intriguingly multifaceted and resist cut-and-dried classification ... All of which sounds serious and thought-provoking. This is only partly true, for the novel is also fun and frequently witty.
