Media Reviews

"The reason you've never read a book like Appleseed is that there's never been a book like Appleseed. The scary thing, though, is this is a world you might recognize. This premise, this content, this form, this language—only Matt Bell could have given us this novel." - Stephen Graham Jones, author of The Only Good Indians

"Equal parts dystopian novel, psychological thriller, and literary fiction, [Scrapper] evokes a dark and lonely existence for its stoic protagonist ... By the novel's end, Bell adeptly depicts Kelly as a complicated soul capable of great violence and kindness." - New York Times Book Review

"A fearless and harrowing meditation on the ruination and transformation of cities and of people; but amid loss and destruction, Bell finds a strain of piercing hope. This is an extraordinary book." - Emily St. John Mandel, New York Times bestselling author of Station Eleven, on Scrapper

"It's hard to imagine a book more difficult to pull off, but Bell proves as self-assured as he is audacious ... Bell's novel isn't just a joy to read, it's also one of the smartest meditations on the subjects of love, family and marriage in recent years ... The novel is a monument to the uniqueness of every relationship, the possibility that love itself can make the world better, though of course it's never easy." - NPR on In the House Upon the Dirt Between the Lake and the Woods

"For readers weary of literary fiction that dutifully obeys the laws of nature, here's a story that stirs the Brothers Grimm and Salvador Dali with its claws ... as gorgeous as it is devastating." - Washington Post on In the House Upon the Dirt Between the Lake and the Woods

"A big, slinking, dangerous fairy tale, the kind with gleaming fangs and blood around the muzzle and a powerful heart you can hear thumping from miles away. The story's ferocity is matched by Matt Bell's glorious sentences: sinuous and darkly magical, they are taproots of the strange." - Lauren Groff on In the House Upon the Dirt Between the Lake and the Woods

"Somber, incantatory sentences to hold you within [Bell's] dreamlike creation ... This unique book leaves you with the haunting lesson that even if you renounce and cast away your loved ones, you can never disown the memory of your deeds." - Wall Street Journal, on In the House Upon the Dirt Between the Lake and the Woods

"A blood-soaked fable ... With this debut novel, Matt Bell [reworks] myths, rituals and fictions into something that can hold his visceral, primal vision. In the House upon the Dirt between the Lake and the Woods provides us with a new, unstable literary element, something scavenged from the old, something bright and wet and vital." - Globe and Mail - Toronto), on In the House upon the Dirt between the Lake and the Woods

"An extraordinary achievement, telling a most ancient story in a way that feels uncannily new." - Boston Globe, on In the House Upon the Dirt Between the Lake and the Woods

"This is a fiercely original book—at once intimate and epic, visceral and philosophical—that sent me scurrying for adjectives, for precedents, for cover. Matt Bell commands the page with bold, vigorous prose and may well have invented the pulse-pounding novel of ideas." - Jess Walter

This information about Appleseed shown above was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. In most cases, the reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that the reviews shown do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, please send us a message with the mainstream media reviews that you would like to see added.

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In the vein of Neal Stephenson and Jeff VanderMeer, an epic speculative novel from Young Lions Fiction Award–finalist Matt Bell, a breakout book that explores climate change, manifest destiny, humanity's unchecked exploitation of natural resources, and the small but powerful magic contained within every single apple.

Those assigned this book will receive a print copy by mail.

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