O'Flynn was praised for being in this novel the "mistress of compassion" and "the JG Ballard of Birmingham...finding poetry and meaning where others see merely boredom and dereliction".
O'Flynn was lauded for her work in this novel, where she is portrayed as the "compassionate one" and "Birmingham's literary equivalent of JG Ballard...discovering poetry and significance in a place that others see as bleak and forsaken".