The same blend of mischievous wordplay, subversion of cliche and distinctive sense of humour that makes him one of Britain's most popular poets

As Far As I Know is self-effacing, unshowy, frequently funny, but with a quiet frankness

Moving poems on memory, love, aging, death and youth ... with his characteristic mix of wordplay and punning, wit, melancholy and self-deprecation

McNeal weaves in fantastical fairy-tale details into this inventive and deeply poignant narrative, creating a world that hovers between realism and enchantment

Reminiscent of Hansel and Gretel, and rife with allusions to Grimm Brothers’ tales, this is a masterful story of outcasts, the power of faith, and the triumph of good over evil.

Enchanting, romantic, and tinged with terror, this modern story subtly weaves the haunting essentials of the fairy-tale tradition into a fascinating and beautifully written homage to its source material

Listen, if you will, whispers the ghost of Jacob Grimm to Jeremy Johnson Johnson and to the readers of this delightful, modern-day fairy tale . . . The tone of Jacob’s narration captures the flavor of the Grimms’ tales while blending humorously with Jeremy’s ordinary, befuddled, teenage life . . .
Readers who love spotting allusions will appreciate this intelligent book’s robust vocabulary, and the real scholarship behind it. (Fantasy. 11-15)

This is a beautifully written tale and one that will stay with me long after finishing it. I can honestly say I haven’t read anything else like it. The author has managed to take elements of fairy tales and weave them intricately into a contemporary novel. I would say it is unique and original and definitely a book I will return to again and again.

This month's best book. 3 reasons to read Perfect: for real characters you'll fall in love with... for a book that will keep you asking questions... to question the nature of mistakes.

Full of compassion... the heartbreaking story of how two lives are derailed by a split-second mistake.

A compelling novel about the crushing restrictions that class and gender can impose, the burden of parental expectation, and the stigma attached to mental illness.

[Joyce] is a charming and skilful writer

The language [Joyce] uses is really poignant and evocative. It is so beautiful and well-crafted I didn't want it to end.

Unforgettable... a deft and original follow-up to The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

The author of last year's biggest selling debut The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry returns with a very different but equally captivating novel... This is a heartbreaking story, full of compassion, that unfolds gently but relentlessly against the backdrop of the suburban '70s. Perfect confirms [Rachel Joyce] as a major new voice.

Moving, insightful and satirical

Joyce’s last novel The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry was a wonderful story of an older man walking across England to say goodbye to a dying friend. It was spoken of fondly in book clubs and in reviews and longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. In Perfect, Joyce has created an excellent follow up.

A cleverly-plotted tale, it is moving yet unsentimental. Sure to delight Joyce fans who made The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry a best-seller.

With Perfect, Joyce wrings another rewarding tale out of the little tragedies of life

Rachel Joyce's first novel, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, won both commercial success and wide critical acclaim (it was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize). She may just repeat the trick with Perfect, a mixture of comedy and drama in much the same vein... this is a novel with the capacity to both surprise and charm.

Out of the smallest, most delicate building blocks, Rachel Joyce gradually builds a towering sense of menace. She understands people, in all their intricacy and vulnerability, in a way few writers do. Perfect is a poignant and powerful book, rich with empathy and charged with beautiful, atmospheric writing.

Intriguing and suspenseful... Joyce, showing the same talent for adroit plot development seen in the bestselling The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, brings both narrative strands together in a shocking, redemptive denouement.

[Joyce's] sympathetically realised characters are people living on the edge, whether of loneliness, poverty or mental illness, and despite its underlying sadness, the book ends with the presage of hope.

A moving and original novel... it confirms [Joyce] as one of the most interesting voices in British fiction

A rewarding, multi-layered novel with empathy for disturbed mental states and, towards the end, a clever fast-forwarding 30 years.

Rachel Joyce's new novel is simply Perfect.

[Joyce] triumphantly returns with PERFECT…As Joyce probes the souls of Diane, Byron, and Jim, she reveals – slowly and deliberately, as if peeling back a delicate onion skin – the connection between the two stories, creating a poignant, searching tale.”

In alternating chapters, these two stories set 40 years apart frame Joyce’s exquisitely played novel of tragedy and mental illness and the kind of wrenching courage unique to those who suffer from the latter and yet battle to overcome it. As in her brilliant debut, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Joyce stuns with her beautifully realized characters and the unexpected convergence of her two tales.

Perfect touches on class, mental illness, and the ways a psyche is formed or broken. It has the tenor of a horror film, and yet at the end, in some kind of contortionist trick, the narrative unfolds into an unexpected burst of redemption. Buy It.

Joyce flings “Perfect’s” characters into chaotic situations fraught with misgivings and confusion ... Diana’s descent into terror is provocative enough to carry this story, but Joyce complements it with a contemporary one about an equally fragile man named Jim who has spent most of his life in a facility for the mentally ill. His connection to Diana will surprise many readers as Joyce spins this equally compelling subplot toward its shocking revelations and conclusion.

Better than The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry... touching [and] eccentric.

Ambitious, dark and honest

That [Perfect] is unputdownable lies in its exploration of so many multilayered emotions. There is the unbreakable bond between mother and son, ?the fear of not belonging, loneliness, grief, guilt, depression, loss, the destructive nature of mental illness and how love can offer redemption.It has been a long time since a novel made me cry, but Joyce’s prose forced those tears out in the closing chapters. It is her clever did-I-read-that-right twist at the end that really got to me and had me scrabbling back though the chapters, open-mouthed.