Bruising ... With unsparing emotional clarity, Burden examines the often-baffling ways relationships can fall apart, and charts a path for people looking to reassemble their own lives. It’s a gut punch.
A hypnotic nail-biter, unfolding like a true-crime novel ... As a writer, Burden has excellent manners. There is an admirable graciousness and restraint to her storytelling.
Burden’s prose reflects both her legal training and her exacting care with language, as if she is acutely aware of how closely her social universe will weigh each sentence ... There's a real deftness and bravery to this ... I felt occasionally disturbed: Would James feel celebrated by all her effort? But for Burden, the right decision was to not stay quiet. Their whole lives were too quiet. She has artfully loosed herself from the true stranger in their marriage, and we can merely wonder if he remains a stranger to himself.
