Critic Reviews
Great
Based on 8 reviews on
Kelly Sundberg's essays have appeared in Guernica, Gulf Coast, The Rumpus, Denver Quarterly, Slice, and others. Her essay "It Will Look Like a Sunset" was selected for inclusion in The Best American Essays 2015, and other essays have been listed as notables in the same series. She has a PhD in creative nonfiction from Ohio University and has been the recipient of fellowships or grants from Vermont Studio Center, A Room of Her Own Foundation, Dickinson House, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Celebrating 35 Debut Authors Age 35 and Up. #binder
"In a town built on a hill, in a state full of sawed-off mountains where muddy roads curved along polluted streams, metal deposits in the water gleamed like steely rainbows..." Kelly Sundberg GOODBYE, SWEET GIRL #35firstlines @K_O_Sundberg @HarperCollins https://t.co/oKIf8Du2cY
"Goodbye, Sweet Girl is heartbreaking, breathtaking in its scope, and urgently truthful in its harrowing and tender examination of when empathy fails--and when it wins." -- Los Angeles Review
"Kelly Sundberg's lyrical, devastating 2014 essay about domestic violence, "It Will Look Like a Sunset," made readers hold their collective breath. It's now expanded into a full-length memoir about Sundberg's husband, a man who was wonderful and violent at turns." -- Elle, The 30 Best Books to Read This Summer
"Goodbye Sweet Girl is a beautiful, devastating, and nuanced story of domestic abuse and escape that does true justice to the experiences of the victims without judgment or criticism of their choices." -- Bustle
"Goodbye, Sweet Girl, bursting with such heartfelt, beautifully crafted scenes, is a gift for those who've experienced the pain of growing up and out of abusive relationships and a guide for those who seek insight and understanding." -- New York Journal of Books
"Mesmerizing and poetic, Goodbye Sweet Girl is a harrowing, cautionary and ultimately redemptive tale that brilliantly illuminates one woman's transformation." -- BookReporter
"Kelly Sundberg gives one of the most brave and beautifully written accounts of a marriage gone wrong in her memoir, Goodbye, Sweet Girl. Sundberg looks at both the tenderness and the violence of her abusive marriage, while also analyzing why women remain too long in dangerous relationships." -- Brooklyn Digest
"[Goodbye, Sweet Girl helps us] to better understand each of our nuances and complexities, how any of us rationalizes our decisions, and how we find the courage to take care of ourselves and to speak our truths.... [Sundberg writes] her truth with a deep sense of compassion." -- The Millions
"Goodbye, Sweet Girl is a story of domestic violence and survival, written by Kelly Sundberg, who experienced abuse at the hands of her husband. A strong and empowering memoir, the layers of Sundberg's life are utterly inspiring." -- Women.com, 15 Awesome Books With Strong Female Protagonists
"A fierce, frightening, soulful reckoning-- Goodbye, Sweet Girl is an expertly rendered memoir that investigates why we stay in relationships that hurt us, and how we survive when we leave them. Kelly Sundberg is a force. She has written the rare book that has the power to change lives." -- Christa Parravani, author of Her: A Memoir
"Reading Kelly Sundberg's writing--fresh, luminous, spirited--is a pleasure second only to witnessing her decision to survive. Goodbye Sweet Girl is a meditation on what it takes to save your own life." -- Ariel Levy
"In this powerful debut memoir, Sundberg delivers a harrowing account of an abusive marriage and how she left it....Sundberg cogently ties together the painful chain of events in her life and the personal growth that resulted from it." -- Publishers Weekly
"Lyrical and taut, Goodbye, Sweet Girl provides readers with an honest and critical account of partner violence." -- Booklist (starred review)