Critical Praise

"From painful humor to poignant scene-setting, [Blau] takes no prisoners in her candid look at an unconventional clan."

—Booklist

"Jessica Blau’s second novel is not only a wise and pitch-perfect depiction of family dynamics but also happens to be unrelentingly, side-splittingly funny. I dare you to forget this family."

—Irina Reyn, author of What Happened to Anna K.

"Jessica Anya Blau has written a very funny --- but also deeply humane --- novel. The central characters writhe in a particular kind of family agony. It might just remind you of your own family. (It certainly reminded me of mine.) Parental love and booze and drugs and all the complications of becoming an adult: This is a smart book --- a book that makes you cringe and laugh out loud."

—Pauls Toutonghi, author of Red Weather

"It might surprise Jessica Anya Blau to hear that her stunning new novel struck me as old-fashioned, so maybe I’d better explain. She creates characters that have a lot more depth and more of a past than one often sees in fiction these days, and she never loses sight of the world they inhabit. Furthermore, she’s of the school in which actions come with consequences, and secrets bring surprises. She’s lavished such attention on these people that I found it impossible not to care about them --- and equally impossible to forget them. Blau is a magnificent writer, and this is one special novel."

—Steve Yarbrough, author of Safe from the Neighbors