" After finishing this book, I want to like it better than I did. I enjoy Victor LaValle's style, his fluid, but straightforward prose, and I like the premise of the book: that there is real horror to be found in the overlap of mental healthcare and criminal justice, the inadequacy of mental healthcare systems, and the slippery slope of combating this system from the inside, burdened either with mental illness or a diagnosis of such. His afterward really makes me want to love the book because he sounds like a thoughtful, cool, down-to-earth writer, but it all never quite gelled for me. The different sections feel really disjointed, partly I think because Pepper, our protagonist, never felt like flesh and blood to me, just like a vehicle for a message and an idea. I wish he'd put the spotlight on 19-year-old Loochie, who I missed when she dropped out of the narrative, and who was the only character I really came to care about. "
— Miriam, 2/2/2014