One of The Millions' Most Anticipated Books of 2022
“Effulgent and clever . . . A zone of mirth and meaning. What fun.”
—Molly Young, The New York Times
“Well-observed, archly funny . . . Zink is a brilliant creator of character, setting and, for lack of a better word, vibe, and there is much pleasure to be found in the way she gets so many things so precisely right in this novel.”
—Samantha Schoech, San Francisco Chronicle
“Fun to read . . . Zink lovingly lampoons the way that teenagers bumble toward identity and character . . . A light-footed Cinderella story that documents a young woman's rise from a wretched existence in stylish, witty fashion”
—Patrick Condon, Minneapolis Star Tribune
“Zink has a gift for crafting elegant sentences that reward rereading . . . The ending of the novel is Zink at her best: clever and biting, and refreshingly unforced.”
—Michael Schaub, The Boston Globe
“Avalon contains delights . . . [The novel’s] discussions [are] lively and entertaining . . . [Zink’s] customary lunacy is on display again in Avalon.”
—Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal
“Incredibly pleasing to see a writer this intelligent keep the focus of her gaze this tight . . . There are also long stretches of satisfying narrative, of humanity and pain . . . The concrete descriptions of California are continually stunning and add a further layer of life . . . [Avalon] ended up, for me, feeling like art.”
—Lynn Steger Strong, Los Angeles Times
“Vivid and thorough—persistent, even, in its whimsy . . . Zink writes, in places, with almost cinematic vividness, and follows Bran’s evolution with an impressive commitment to realizing her experiences on the page.”
—Claire Messud, Harper’s
“Zink delves into class, art, and American culture in a characteristically witty bildungsroman . . . Even more impactful than the intellectual ballistics is the tortured romance story. The style is all Zink’s own, and she’s as brilliant as ever here.”
—Publishers Weekly, starred
