Brilliant, devastating: Paula Bomer, THE NEW YORK TIMES
Visceral, unsentimental directness: THE NEW YORKER
One of the most mesmerizing heroines in recent fiction: Michael Ennis, TEXAS MONTHLY
Burns with heretical knowledge: Susanna Sonnenberg, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
The greatest restaurant book on earth: Courtney Maum, ELECTRIC LIT
Don't come expecting a happy ending: Chris Vognar, DALLAS MORNING NEWS
Fatally cleaved: Victoria Patterson, LOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS
Masochism on the menu: Amy Gentry, CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Smart and ruthless: Ted Kehoe, ARTS FUSE
Terribly uncomfortable to read: KIRKUS
Let the wounded women take over: Elisabeth Donnelly, FLAVORWIRE
A shock to the system: Michael Agresta, TEXAS OBSERVER
A brutal tour: Melissa Maerz, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
A graphic (!) review by Kristen Radtke for Oxford American.
2014 YEAR-END MENTIONS
heart-cracking Chicago Tribune
more or less tore my scalp off The Millions
fierce, fearless, and unconventional Bustle beautifully written Bustle stark and poetic and ugly Bustle crackles and hurts Bustle
a prayer to everything broken, vulnerable, and human BookRiot
easily the darkest novel I read in 2014 LitReactor
bracing lack of redemption Atlanta Journal-Constitution
it's honest, it's vulnerable, it's necessary Electric Literature
Merritt Tierce is fierce Dayton Daily
it's graphic, it's dark, it's relentless...it's Cormac McCarthy's The Road set in a Dallas steakhouse KERA's Think
one of the year's most beautiful books Dallas Observer
a gorgeous dirty razor of prose—sharp and dangerous and breathtaking ROXANE GAY
Finalist, PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize
Winner, Texas Institute of Letters Steven Turner Prize for First Fiction
Best Book of 2014: The Chicago Tribune, Electric Literature, Last Night's Reading