"Lyrical. . . . Smart and raw."
--The Washington Post

"Sally Rooney-esque. . . . Popkey's sentences careen breathlessly as her halting, staccato prose mirrors the 'churning' within the narrator's mind. . . . A shrewd record of the act of unflinchingly circling these amorphous notions of pain, desire and control."
--The New York Times Book Review

"Masterly."
--The New Yorker

"Electrifying. . . . Shrewd and sensual, Popkey's debut carries the scintillating charge of a long-overdue girls' night."
--O, The Oprah Magazine

"Slim but potent... has the flavor of Rachel Cusk. . . . Provocative. . . . Sure to spark conversation."
--NPR

"Formally adventurous and blisteringly current. . . . In glittering prose, Popkey illuminates the performative nature of storytelling, assessing the degree to which the stories we tell about our lives are fictions."
--Esquire

"As [the narrator] explores her own history through a shifting lens of female rivalries and friendships, the book's surface coolness begins to peel away, revealing the raw, uncommon nerve of a radically honest storyteller."
--Entertainment Weekly

"Masterfully controlled, delightfully chilly."
--The Boston Globe

"Icily intelligent. . . . Reading Topics of Conversation [is] as thrilling as being told a secret."
--The San Francisco Chronicle

"Perceptive, biting. . . . There's much to relate to and dogear in this slim book."
--Real Simple

"Bedazzling. . . . A slender volume with the power of lightning."
--BookPage

"Rich and rigorous."
--Kirkus Reviews