Tightly written, often brilliant… Alive with deft asides and daring intuitive leaps. Daniels is a very good writer, and [this is] a very good book… The self is the well from which all these essays are drawn; or perhaps it’s the sewer into which all these essays drain… A complete work about a work-in-progress, the self-portrait of a writer slowly coming into his own.

What a nutjob! Increasingly these three words constitute my highest praise for – almost my ideal of – a writer, and in this regard J. D. Daniels takes the biscuit. I love the way he throws out everything, both in the sense of throwing it all at us, and the opposite: discarding everything that might be deemed necessary to the seemly construction of narrative. So The Correspondence gives us the best of both worlds.

The Correspondence gives off the unmistakable crackle of an original writer who has found a new form. It's hard to say who or what is meant to be on the receiving end of these “letters”, but if you care about modern life you need to read them.

The Correspondence is one of the best things I’ve read in a long time, a whole new music that changes the score of masculinity, and a new kind of writing too, one that pushes form and sentence into radical, contemporary shapes. The word ‘honesty’ has become something of an irritant in contemporary literary culture: J. D. Daniels does something more moral than be simply honest. He invokes the grandeur and abasement of experience with a tactility of language that makes a psychological landscape of it, rather as the ancient Greeks did, and his notions of justice and truth are as richly textured as theirs. I have lent this slim, meaningful book to one person after another, and received the confirmation that it has changed their view of the world with its economy, its potency, its different fall of light.

Daniels sees what others don't, feels what others won't, and writes what others can't. He is a blazing virtuoso of the English sentence, an oracle with a vulnerable and willing heart, and he has produced a shockingly perfect book.

Questions that occurred to me as I read this brilliant, baffling book: What the hell is this? Who the hell is this? Is this poetry? How can that sentence be so good? Can I steal that later? In 130 pages, Daniels shows you just about everything great prose can do. Books like this are why I read.

J.D. Daniels's The Correspondence is an epic in fragments: masterly, comic, wise, daring. It is a book for everyone, from Kentucky to Cambridge to Kathmandu, though as a reader you may feel that Daniels is trafficking in secrets, meant for you alone. It is occult. It is so strong, it will melt the books on the shelves around it. This is a book that will become a legend, introducing one of the very best writers in the country. If I could thrust it into every true reader's hands, I would.

Through the speed and shocking cuts of his prose, Daniels shows us what it is to be a writer now. Each of these six letters is a modern expression of Baudelaire's tortured prayer: “O Lord God grant me the grace to produce a few good verses, which shall prove to myself that I am not the lowest of men, that I am not inferior to those whom I despise.”

J.D. Daniels is a scourge to an America drunk on fraudulent images of masculinity and to a literary scene enamored of dainty exhibitionism. A writer so rigorously on guard against complacency that he's likely to take any compliment paid him like a slap in the face.

Masculinity as vulnerable, smelly smackdown, personal failure as syntactic delight: in this volatile, brilliant collection, Daniels recollects in not-quite tranquility a series of synesthesiac rearrangements of the self. The riveting swerves of his sentences and of his geographic and spiritual wanderings will make you keep asking what “here” might be. These essays pay tribute to “the world… our common property”.

Daniels’ book, a slip of a thing, is a hard one to pin down. But pin it down you should… Darker, fiercer, funnier… His is a strange, addictive voice, impossible to categorise. You won’t read another book like it.

Daniels writes in a splendidly self-deprecating way while describing how martial arts took over his life (Brazilian jiu-jitsu, if you must know), about leaving the teaching profession because “I wanted to kill and eat the children who had been entrusted to my care” and of his reintroduction to his home state of Kentucky. Some would call him glib, but it’s an ironic pseudo-glibness which acknowledges pain and regret but isn’t going to let them get in the way of a good story. The Correspondence may be a tricky book to define, but what’s easier to discern from it is the emergence of a distinctive new voice worth listening to.

Eerie, original and subversive, How to be Human is a fascinating yet disturbing look at obsession, delusion and loneliness . . A thrilling exploration of what makes us human.

A writer who is clearly unafraid of launching herself with a bang . . . Compelling . . . We are reminded of how close to the surface primal instincts can prowl.

Nicely balanced between the serious and the lighter-hearted, Cocozza’s novel is an engaging read.

In turn devastating, heart-warming and absurd, How to Be Human is an astonishing debut . . . At its core, it is a powerful and tender portrait of madness, loss and love.

Cocozza builds up equal measures of dread, danger and derangement as Mary brilliantly but bizarrely redefines what her future might look like.

A singular love story of dominance and betrayal, this novel sets the tone for what will hopefully be a long and strange literary career.

This brilliantly eerie novel is a powerful meditation on the blurred lines between sanity and delusion, the wild and so-called civilisation.

An atmospheric tale about safety, sanity and the complexity of relationships.

This dream-like debut from Cocozza paints a cleverly observed picture of wildness and loneliness, blurring the lines between human nature, normality and delusion.

Emma Cline’s first novel positively hums with fresh, startling, luminous prose. THE GIRLS announces the arrival of a thrilling new voice in American fiction.

Set to be the biggest literary debut of the summer, you'll soon be seeing its retro cover everywhere... Cline perfectly captures the spirit and nuances of female adolescence

Heart-wrenchingly nostalgic… Brings the details of girlhood rushing back... new voice in American fiction

Precisely, gorgeously written… What sets the book apart is its exquisitely forensic portrait of what it is to be a young woman.

With the maturity of a writer twice her age, Cline has written a wise novel that’s never showy: a quiet, seething confession of yearning and terror... Debut novels like this are rare, indeed

‘****… Luxuriant prose… Her storytelling ability began to weave its magic as the narrative builds to a dramatic and horrific climax.

One of my personal books of the year. Brilliantly evoking the period of the late sixties…her writing gets right into the mind of a teenage girl… I knew this was a writer I wanted to know more about.

She is exceptionally good at capturing the fearful, conflicted sensibility of a 14-year-old girl… The sheer poetic lyricism of her prose is remarkable.

If you are an awkward, cynical person, this kind of hype might put you off, might make you look for flaws. Good luck. The Girls is fabulous... It is almost certainly the book of the summer: it is saturated with colours and the mingled smells of jasmine and decay. It's extremely readable but it has a fringed heart of darkness

She delivers magnificent prose, sentence after sentence after sentence … she is a fantastic writer, her intelligence is extraordinary, with a penetration, an understanding of her subject

The most hyped debut novel of the year – and it fully lived up to its promise.

Debut by an author so unmistakably in possession of great analytical intelligence and a gift for spinning theory’s straw into story’s gold.

The Girls stands comparison with Jeffrey Eugenides’s The Virgin Suicides… There is a self-aware coolness about Cline.

An intense evocation of adolescence…absorbing debut.

A tense and claustrophobic read that perfectly and painfully conjures the fragile expectancy of teenage girls.

A hazy, lazy, highly fictionalized but precisely, gorgeously written reworking of the Charles Manson story… The book of the summer.

Cline is extraordinarily good… A beautifully written, consuming story which perfectly captures the mindset of an adolescent girl.

It triumphantly lives up to the hype

Keenly anticipated.

Cline deftly depicts the pressures that shape life as a young woman… She captures the bonds between women that both sustain and resist the violence of patriarchy… The atmosphere of languorous sun-drenched danger will stay with you for days.

Cline hypnotically unpicks the psyche of a teenage girl… Cool, dreamy and dark debut.

This is a stand-out debut from a hugely accomplished 26-year-old author. It’s beautifully written, completely gripping and perfectly catches a girl on the cusp of adulthood.

Beautiful, heady language and under-the-skin storytelling.

A good shot at becoming the must-read novel of the summer.

Illuminates the darker side of infatuation under the glare of the Californian sun.

Vivid, exacting portrait of a vulnerable young girl coming of age.

Gripping read.

The strength of The Girls lies in Cline’s ability to evoke both the textures and atmosphere of those painful in-between times… [Cline] is a powerful interpreter of ambiguous emotional vectors, and the catastrophic directions in which they can lead.

Cline’s real achievement is not so much the dread-filled journey to the book’s harrowing climax, however, but her vividly drawn central character and how she stumbles from invisible, impressionable bystander to unwitting accomplice… Cline is excellent at capturing the complex negotiations and compromises of girlhood… The Girls is a horror story for our times, a gripping and richly poetic account… Its ambition and reach are immense.

Vividly reimagines 1960s California… Cline’s portrait of teenage girl-dom is note perfect.

Dubbed fiction’s most exciting new voice… This page-turner is a powerful insight into the culture of gang mentality… The read of the summer.

Notable for its finely wrought prose, its piercing insight into the teen mind and the gorgeous way it relates terrible things. Read it before the movie is cast…and enjoy Evie for the wonderfully written creation she is’

Gets off to a quietly thrilling start… Her sentences are often strong and lovely, indicative of voice rather than merely of style.

Mesmerising novel… Impressive book’

First the heady language and sensuous descriptions will hook you, then the extraordinary story of free love, intoxication and violence… Remarkable debut… The Girls brims with intrigue… It’s the intimacy and intricacy of Cline’s prose and her sharp sense of humanity that makes the book shimmer with life… The Girls is a spectacular story.

Sun-scorched coming of age chiller… Brutally convincing.

If you’re only going to pack one book next to your swimming trunks this year, this is the one to go for… [Emma Cline] Has hit a home run with her first swing.

It’s disturbing…but you keep reading.

Wonderfully readable, and acutely observed, this is that rare thing: a beach novel of real substance.

The big holiday read of summer. Find a sunlounger and get started.

Subtly provoking novel… The strength of The Girls lies in Cline’s ability to evoke both the textures and atmosphere of those painful in-between times; the desperate rush to fill an emotional vacuum… Cline has a talent for capturing that uncanniness, the fault lines in our sense of our stability… she is a powerful interpreter of ambiguous emotional vectors, and the catastrophic directions in which they can lead.

Thrilling… Gritty, shocking and ever so readable; more than living up to the hype that greeted its initial sale.

Wonderfully readable, finely written and acutely observed.

One of the pleasures…is its immediacy… The book is a trancelike accumulation of intense adolescent feelings and myopic impressions… The setting is rendered both vividly and delicately… [A] Slender, absorbing book.

If you're only going to pack one book this year, make it this one.

This chilling story of fractured innocence is beautifully written in wonderfully descriptive, sometimes dream-like prose. A stunningly powerful, spellbinding cautionary tale.

Both in person and on the page Cline is wise beyond her years. I read the book with a biro underlining phrases that I wish I could write. I am no longer jealous, I am just in awe.

'I really enjoyed it... A compelling coming-of-age story... Cline focuses not on the murders themselves, but on the landscape of adolescence, accurately portraying the boredom and lassitude, the yearning and insecurities of that awkward transitional stage... Stunningly written, in fresh, youthful prose, expect to see The Girls on deckchairs, beach towels and best-seller lists over the coming months

Unnervingly perceptive … Part murderous thriller, part meditation on the vulnerability of teenage girls, it’s an exquisite, insightful and chilling read.

Unexpected and brilliant debut novel.

An intense evocation of adolescence…absorbing debut novel.

As gripping as a thriller, it’s a powerful exploration of hero worship of all kinds, and the shapes into which girls force themselves as they attempt to grow up.

This year's Miniaturist

A fantastic writer, her intelligence is extraordinary

Gripping novel… Cline’s debut is a real page-turner.

It is the language which elevates the novel to brilliance… Cline takes ordinary words and fits them together in patterns that shouldn’t work but…bring[s] a vibrancy to her prose that captivates.

Not the cheeriest summer read of the year, but it is one of the most powerful… Cline masterfully uses the sultriness of the season to explore the complex negotiations of girlhood.

Highly charged literary debut… Visceral, seductive and delicately seething, Cline articulates the labyrinth anxieties of adolescence and the importance of belonging with a personal, finely tuned prose and a restrained, drip-feed pace that belies her age.

A dark, erotically charged story of seduction, coercion and abuse emerges that has deliberate echoes of the Manson Family massacres in 1969… Cline brilliantly conveys the predatory cultural and sexual forces to which teenage girls are so often vulnerable. And her prose is completely to die for.

The Girls stands apart from other treatments of Manson.

Gripping, and highly impressive.

Sumptuous prose… Believe the hype: she’s one to watch.

The narrative is layered and complex, as even the young Evie seems to be an astute observer of human nature, who does not gloss over the less glamorous details, even in those she loves and admires. Throughout the novel, the fragility of the relationships are laid bare… [An] Immersive experience, both for the reader, and a narrator looking to reclaim some of her most vivid memories.

A gripping read.

Cline brilliantly captures the precise, sultry prose the vulnerable and highly-charged sensibility of adolescence in a hotly-tipped debut inspired by the Manson Family massacre that – for once – justifies the hype.

Eloquent, coming-of-age debut… I was quite sure it could never live up to the hype. How wrong I was… Well-crafted prose… This is a perceptive, insightful and beautifully written book on the often harsh realities of the formative teenage years and a telling truth of what some will do to belong and feel loved. It is a must-read.

It unsettles and disturbs in unpredictable ways. Above all, Cline is excellent on the female coffee table book adolescent psyche and the ways in which girlhood is so often an act performed for the opposite sex… The end result is gripping, and highly impressive.

An intense evocation of adolescence…set to be the breakout book of summer. Every page throbs with the threat of violence.

The writing is lush and surprising.

[It is] shockingly assured for a first novel.

Already I’m hooked… The writing style…is totally engaging – shrewd and observant but with a certain softness. I’ll report back when I’ve finished, but I think this will be a great summer read.

The Girls is compulsively readable… A strikingly accomplished debut. Evie’s voice shimmers with vivid metaphorical language… There are some truly breathtaking passages — lush and lapidary and full of startling imagery… A fierce challenge to our received notion of the 1960s as an era of peace signs, protest marches and free love, and [this] adds a note of profundity to this highly impressive first novel.

Emma Cline's The Girls is so brilliant.

A compelling novel… [A] nuanced and deeply drawn character study of teenage ennui and anger… In luminous prose, the novel maps Evie’s obsessive psyche… A compelling and startling new work of fiction. Ms. Cline brilliantly shows how far adolescent loneliness can push a girl in her desire to be loved.

[A] steamy hit.

[It] is so brilliant… The only thing more perfect about this book than Cline’s woozily dreamy prose is her timing.

The Summer read for you... Cline’s gorgeous novel is both stunning and shocking. We dare you not to devour in one sitting

[A] literary page-turner.

A startlingly intense, brilliant and brooding debut novel….written with luminous foreboding lyricism.

[It is] intelligent and thoughtful.

Cline’s portrayal of the fragile teen years and the power they have in shaping the woman you become will resonate with everyone.

Cline’s language…is splendid at conjuring pictures.

Cline - from California, where the novel is set, has crafted a distinct poetic timbre that devises similes galore to augment the imagery and the protagonist’s insight… Inspired, I look forward to reading more from this highly talented author. I will indeed re-Cline.

Cline’s structure…allows her to apply her acute observations about girlhood to today’s world.

The summer’s standout debut… A tense, febrile imagining… The Girls is a subtle, restrained and beautifully textured telling of one of pop culture history’s most luridly hideous moments, with a heightened, dreamlike quality that tips irrevocably into nightmare.

I read this in a single sitting a few months back, and it remains my favourite read of 2016. The writing is so beautiful; the sentences perfectly formed, cumulated in a plot that slowly draws you in… Eloquent, perceptive and insightful, you won’t be able to put this one down.

This book was sublime. I read it as the last of the sunshine faded into autumn and I felt transported into 1969 California.

[A] clever debut novel… Gripping.

Undeniably the dazzling fiction debut of the year, this brilliant American novel is a vivid evocation of California in 1969… It is the author’s luminous prose style that excels. Exhilarating.

A spellbinding, supremely evocative coming-of-age story

[A] compulsively readable debut [which] is a vivid examination of adolescence.

A fluent, engrossing debut novel.

The Californian setting is intoxicating, as laced with sunlight as filth, and its insight into the teenage girl’s mind is extraordinary.

A book of glistening prose.

Believe the hype; it is simply brilliant.

A shimmering tale of adolescence and sexual awakening written in prose that aptly feels almost hallucinatory

A haunting and gripping read.

Highly recommended if you’re in need of a good read.

Both shocking and subtle, its real power lies in the exploration of girlhood itself.

Brilliantly done… The year is 1969. Evie notices a group of scavenging girls – they belong to a nearby cult. And this cult is horrific. Think of the Manson family… A seriously excellent debut novel.

As Lena Dunham says, it'll both break your heart and blow your mind.

Through the story of the Manson family and their brutal crimes, Cline explores the intensity and loneliness of female adolescence with an impressive mastery of language.

A superb, chilling novel of doom-laden adolescence.

A thrilling, savage exploration of how a teenager gets sucked into a cult led by a Charles Manson figure.

The writing is so beautiful; the sentences perfectly formed, cumulated in a plot that slowly draws you in… Eloquent, perceptive and insightful, you won’t be able to put this one down.

Few books have such a dramatic effect on me but Emma Cline’s stirring debut The Girls is one I’ve never managed to get out of my head… This is a perceptive, insightful and beautifully written book on the often harsh realities of the formative teenage years and a telling truth of what some will do to belong and feel loved. It is a must-read and one that is more than worth sitting down with a second or third time.

The novel has a number of things going for it, from Cline's gorgeous prose to her knack for plot and timing, to her way of presenting Evie's electric, often jolting moments of self-recognition. But the aspect of The Girls that captivated me the most was how Cline channels that particular period in a girl's life when she is consumed with the need to be seen, to be known—by her mother, by slightly older girls, and most often, by men.

Thanks to Cline’s lyrical prose, which is at once as clear as the Californian skies of the novel’s setting and as evocative as a sunshine drenched Polaroid picture, The Girls perfectly captures the twilight years of the hippie era, where the rot of its seedy drug-fuelled underbelly shattered the dream of peace and love and culminated in a gruesome massacre that shocked the world.

The Girls exemplifies the uncomfortably thin line between healthy and unhealthy relationships