St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Wistful, eloquent, heartfelt and humane...[Watts] channels Toni Morrison’s masterful direct address with great success... The overwhelming power of this remarkable novel rests in its ability to face excruciating truths with optimism through its singing prose
Cristina Henríquez
There is wisdom, vital and profound, on every single page of this novel. It’s a story about home — what it means to leave and whether you can return, and how it is people in the end who are its beating heart. Absolutely luminous.
Celeste Ng
Rich with wry and poignant observations on human nature, family, and black experience in America. A powerful-and, in today’s world, necessary -perspective on the American dream and the possibility of beginning again.
Edward P. Jones
A grand debut novel full of characters who come into a reader’s mind and heart and never leave. Stephanie Powell Watts is a writer of wondrous skill, imagination and sensitivity, and No One Is Coming to Save Us is a beautiful testament to that.
Sigrid Nunez
Stephanie Powell Watts’s inspired reimagining of the novel long regarded as the American masterwork of the twentieth century gives soul, body, and voice to those left out of Scott Fitzgerald’s vision of the American dream... bold, brilliant, and timely. It is just what contemporary American fiction needs.
Minnesota Public Radio
Terrific ... A timely, beautiful story that deserves a spot on the shelf next to F. Scott Fitzgerald.
People
Watts winks at Gatsby while shining her literary light on black women...The American dream served with sweet tea, sympathy and deep insights.
Dallas Morning News
A strong story of hope and pain and longing...Watts excels at showing the dense relationships among characters as they strive for hope and reinvention...A memorable and moving tale.
Associated Press Staff
The characters will draw you in...From their perspective, we’re given a story about what happens when the past refuses to remain where we’ve buried it.
Entertainment Weekly
The Great Gatsby migrates to the American South in Watts’ powerful novel.
USA Today
Watts, with her knowing touch and full-bodied prose, delivers a resonant meditation on life and the comfort both in dreaming and in moving forward.
Time
Watts excels at physical descriptions that give texture to the world of the novel… In the best possible way, this is the kind of book that makes a reader yearn for her next one.
Vanity Fair
They say if you love something, you should set it free. Not so in Stephanie Powell Watts’ powerful debut novel...This timely novel sheds its green light on economic and emotional heartbreak and the spaces where the living meet the dead.
Real Simple
A deep, moving read.
Marie Claire
Inspired by The Great Gatsby, Watts loosely (masterfully, too) retells the American saga from the present day perspective of a once thriving African American community, breathing fresh life into a classic in a way that feels more essential, more moving than the original.
W Magazine
Deeply evocative.
Booklist
Watts’ lyrical writing and seamless floating between characters’ viewpoints make for a harmonious narrative chorus. This feels like an important, largely missing part of our ongoing American story. Ultimately, Watts offers a human tale of resilience and the universally understood drive to hang on and do whatever it takes to save oneself.
Chicago Review of Books
This universally resonant story of the American Dream is a poignant examination of family and human nature.
Nylon Magazine
Imagine The Great Gatsby, only set in the contemporary American South, and retold with black characters, rather than the lily-shite Long Island set. Watts’ retelling is smart, unsettling, at times hilarious, and a wonderful update to this classic American novel.
Washington Post
Watts is so captivating a writer. She’s unusually deft with dialogue…[The novel is] conveyed in a prose style that renders the common language of casual speech into natural poetry, blending intimate conversation with the rhythms of gossip, town legend, even song lyrics...An indelible story.
New York Times Book Review
Watts writes about ordinary people leading ordinary lives with an extraordinary level of empathy and attention...The novel’s intricately plotted relationships pay off satisfyingly in its final chapters.
