Jennifer Clement's new novel is <b>appallingly timely</b> ... Ms Clement creates <b>a weird poetry of murderous force</b>. Chekhov’s narrative principle—that a gun hung on the wall in the first act must eventually go off—has become a metaphorical rule of storytelling. To reflect American reality, Ms Clement puts a gun on every wall in every room
The Economist
<b>A neon fairytale</b>... written in the <b>punchy</b>, exaggerated style of a graphic novel, it’s surprisingly <b>enjoyable</b>
- Lois Beckett, Guardian
Clement's book is charged with <b>gut-punch sentences and indelible images</b>, but [the] second act is particularly <b>searing</b> ... Propelled to its inevitable denouement less by plot than by <b>the intensity of its author's prose and singular vision</b>, this is<b> an uncompromising snapshot of America's ills</b>
- Stephanie Cross, Daily Mail
Clement's spare, often oblique style makes this book feel like <b>a great lost murder ballad</b> by the likes of Johnny Cash or Nick Cave ... <b>excellent</b> at describing the intensity of the love between a mother and child within a claustrophobic environment, and the disruption that a hostile male presence causes to this bond ... <b>One of those rare books</b> that the reader might wish to be a few dozen pages longer, to spend more time in this fully realised world
- Alexander Larman, The Observer
<b>Haunting</b> ... <b>poetic</b> ... <b>Full of sorrow and aching sweetness</b>, “Gun Love” provides a glimpse of people who dwell every day knee deep in the toxic waste of our gun culture. They may be America’s forgotten children, but after reading this novel, you are not likely to forget them
- Ron Charles, Washington Post