There's plenty of reference catnip for a niche reader in this hip, propulsive tale . . . [Newton's] style is electrically distinctive. In pyrotechnic passages, she recreates the vibe and tenor of an internet that's just on the edge of turning sour. Sentences that fizzle and scorch will also appeal to fans of Jade Sharma and Mary Robison, other bards of women on the absolute verge. Agnes is emphatically not for everyone, but I was thrilled . . . to encounter this voice.

Literary Hub

An astonishing debut as mesmerizing as it is unnerving. Like a surreal film it unfolds before us vivid as a nightmare from which we are unable to look away; by turns wildly funny, harrowing, and moving.

Joyce Carol Oates, National Humanities Medal, NBCC's Ivan Sandrof Life Achievement Award, and National Book Award-winning author of FOX

We've had to wait too long for Hallie Newton. Everybody feels like her-at our best, at our worst-but there isn't another person who sounds like her. And now here she finally is. An astonishing-a powerfully good-writer. Agnes Lives! is like an undertow reaching for your ankles-and then suddenly you're out into the deep waters, with a view that is overall and surprisingly lovely. Hallie Newton writes like nobody else: deeper, sharper, truer, utterly without fear. We needed her for a long time. Here she is. Agnes Lives! is the debut we've waited on, the best I've read in forever.

David Lipsky, New York Times bestselling author of The Parrot and the Igloo

Unsettling, compelling, mysterious, and also, well, so fun to read. Newton's first novel is a marvelous debut.

Rivka Galchen, author of EVERYONE KNOWS YOUR MOTHER IS A WITCH

The closest I've ever been to the world of this novel was when I used to use the ladies room at Bergdorf's, which was on a high floor but right next to the elevator. It took me serious acclimation to settle in, as if it were one of those science fiction novels full of invented common nouns. Then it took off, like a runaway stagecoach pulled by the four horsemen of the apocalypse. When I realized what its metafictional project was--not to kill off Agnes, though there's nothing she wants more--I wanted to write Newton a fan letter. Agnes Lives! is a tale of suspense, a statement, a cry for help, and a delicious tour-de-force of the higher consumerist sleaze porn morass.

Nell Zink, author of SISTER EUROPE

A ferocious New York novel. Woodcutters meets Eyes Wide Shut.

Amie Barrodale, author of TRIP