-
“Mostly Dead Things is one of the strangest and funniest and most surprising first novels I’ve ever read.”
— Karen Russell, New York Times bestselling author
-
“It’s funny, dark, complex, and queer.”
— USA Today
-
“The action flips from the past to the present,
swimming through first love and first grief on a slick of red Kool-Aid and
vodka, suntan oil and fruity lip gloss, easy and unforced. This book is my song
of the summer.”
— New York Times
-
“[Arnett] gets many things right in this first novel: the feeling of being trapped and vulnerable within one’s own family.”
— Washington Post
-
“Jesse Vilinsky is able to narrate Jessa’s first-person account in a manner that lets readers know that Jessa has spent her life hiding her feelings. She fittingly adds bursts of emotion and a quivering quality to her voice but is able to keep her overall manner reserved. All of the characters have their own distinct voices.”
— Booklist (audio review)
-
“A family drama that’s as weirdly wonderful as it is captivating.”
— Paste
-
“A strange, loving, and often startlingly funny portrait of loss and the act of piecing together the scraps of what’s left in grief’s wake.”
— BuzzFeed
-
“A bold, dark and profoundly comic novel about the nature of love, loss, and invention.”
— BookPage
-
“Arnett writes with keen perception and clarity throughout, not just of grief and old wounds but of the working-class Florida landscape in which the Mortons live. This is an exquisitely painful and tender story, compassionate and understanding of its characters and their myriad flaws.”
— Shelf Awareness
-
“A celebration of the strangeness of life and love and loss, all of it as murky as a Florida swamp but beautiful in its wildness.”
— Nylon
-
“Arnett’s vision of Florida as a creative swamp of well-meaning misfits and the sweet hopefulness of finding your way back to yourself through family.”
— Literary Hub
-
“Arnett brings all of Florida’s strangeness to life through the lens of a family snowed under with grief.”
— Kirkus Reviews
-
“Set in a richly rendered Florida and filled with delightfully wry prose and bracing honesty, Arnett’s novel introduces a keenly skillful author with imagination and insight to spare.”
— Publishers Weekly
-
“A clever debut with a Florida setting that brings to mind writers such as Karen Russell and Lauren Groff.”
— Library Journal
-
“Kristen Arnett is the queen of the Florida no one has ever told you about, and on every page she brings it to a steely and vivid life.”
— Alexander Chee, author of How to Write an Autobiographical Novel