* "Flood's debut novel is a slow burn. Its beauty, like that of the book's rural England setting, grows on you, building with every scene. At first, it's prosaic like a sunny summer day, but as the pages flit by, it becomes as profound and tragically brutal as nature itself. Thirteen-year-old Iris has a lot to deal with as summer commences. . . . In an impressively realized, matter-of-fact first-person narration, Flood fully inhabits Iris. . . . Whether she is describing the near silence of the countryside, a stifling conversation with a classmate's nosy mother, or an argument that explodes into violence, Flood's understated, gently embellished prose cuts to the bone."

– Booklist, March 2014, *STARRED REVIEW*

"Tragedy emerges from the commonplace miseries of everyday life in this evocative mood piece. . . . Readers who don't need endings tied up with tight little bows will find much to think about here."

– Kirkus Reviews, April 2014

"Iris is forced to confront the confusing intersection of love, loyalty, and culpability. Told in the first person, this is a moving story of a young English girl’s coming-of-age."

– School Library Journal, April 2014

"Iris and Trick and their families are all sympathetically portrayed in this debut novel that skillfully balances moments of introspection and action, loyalty and betrayal, and, most indelibly, happiness and heartbreak."

– Horn Book Magazine, May/June 2014