THE AGE
"Think of Doris Lessing’s The Good Terrorist, John le Carré’s The Little Drummer Girl. To their company can now be added Vancouver writer Nancy Lee, whose new novel takes that already potent brew and adds something just as fraught in its own way: the land-mined landscape of the teenage girl." - The Montreal Gazette/Edmonton Journal (Full Review)
"Utterly transfixing. It’s a fundamentally human novel, unflinching from the darkness, both outside and within." - The Vancouver Sun
"A complex examination of family ties, maternal love, friendship and self-sacrifice. This is a daring, ambitious and original novel whose atmosphere lingers long after the story ends." - The Globe and Mail (Full Review)
"Lee's prose is magnetic from first gasp, often visceral...The Age is a messy, brutal, desperate story about fear and loss. In the end, it's also a hopeful tale of family and of moving forward." - Winnipeg Free Press
"Lee furnishes The Age with sentences whose lyricism, poignancy, humour, or fresh verve prove a consistent delight." - The National Post
"At its heart, The Age explores the fault lines left by trauma. It does not flinch from questioning the motivation to live despite staggering evidence demanding one stay kneeled. I felt altered after finishing this book." - FreeFall Magazine
DEAD GIRLS
“Beautifully penned, intensely moving stories...A masterwork of revelation and catharsis...What a gift is Nancy Lee. No review can tell you.” – The Globe and Mail
"Graceful and wintry, Nancy Lee's stories describe with beautiful, desolate precision a society that is itself dismembered, riven by loss and hunger." -- The Guardian UK (Full Review)
“Dead Girls is among the bravest fictional debuts in recent memory and heralds the arrival of a bold and audacious new voice in Canadian writing...A disturbing, threatening, and ultimately thrilling debut.” – Quill & Quire (Full Review, Starred)
“Dead Girls has a can’t-put-it-down urgency. It’s about survival and toughness – and when you least expect it, hope.” – Chatelaine
"With subtlety, sensuousness and surprising humour, Lee's fragmentary tales of women regarded as expendable explore emotional dislocation and the confused contours between living and dead." -- The Observer
“These stories [have] a heart-stopping power...Meticulously crafted, every element faceted and polished...Dead Girls reveals Nancy Lee as a writer of uncanny abilities.” – Ottawa Citizen
“Lee has written a book that has an unforgettable sense of urgency. Remember the name.” – NOW (Full Review, Five Stars, Book of the Year)
“Nancy Lee writes as a young writer should – fearlessly...Dead Girls is a standout first collection." – Edmonton Journal
“Her writing flows so eloquently, you don’t fully appreciate its sting until the sentence is over. Dead Girls is a powerful book perfectly in step with its time...” – The Georgia Straight
“Vibrant, startling, and – contradicting the book’s title – electrically alive.” – Victoria Times Colonist
“Dead Girls is a frighteningly accomplished book.” – Montreal Gazette
“Lee is a pure and fearless writer.” – The Toronto Star