Book Reviews
Watts’s book envisions a backwoods African-American version of The Great Gatsby. The circumstances of her characters are vastly unlike Fitzgerald’s, and those differences are what make this novel so moving. No frivolity or superficiality here.
Janet Maslin - New York Times
Stephanie Powell Watts's skillful riff on The Great Gatsby … revolves around a contemporary black family in a declining North Carolina town. Which doesn't mean that No One Is Coming to Save Us is some kind of Jay Z Gatsby fantasy.… Watts writes about ordinary people leading ordinary lives with an extraordinary level of empathy and attention.… Watts is interested in what black people are allowed to want — and allow themselves to want — in 21st-century America, and what it takes to venture a real claim for a place, a home.… The ways in which No One Is Coming to Save Us intersects with and veers away from Fitzgerald's familiar plot can be very rewarding…Every departure can be seen as a sly comment on what it means to be a person of color in today's America.
Jade Chang - New York Times Book Review
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.
Washington Post
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
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.
Marie Claire
A deep, moving read.
Real Simple
In her patient yet rich first novel, a Great Gatsby reboot, Watts … takes a beat too long to find its rhythm, but when it does, it hits home — and hard.… [R]elevant and memorable.
Publishers Weekly
This quiet debut novel takes its time, much like the conversations among the various characters, which meander and loop around before reaching their point. The resolution is believable and gratifying without being pat. —Christine DeZelar-Tiedman, Univ. of Minnesota Libs., Minneapolis
Library Journal
Watts’ lyrical writing and seamless floating between characters’ viewpoints make for a harmonious narrative chorus … 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.
Booklist
(Starred review.) The Great Gatsby is revived in an accomplished debut novel.… Watts' gently told story, like Fitzgerald's, is only superficially about money but more acutely about the urgent, inexplicable needs that shape a life.
Kirkus Reviews