Animators (Whitaker) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
Unusual and appealing.… The Animators covers familiar debut-novel territory: the search for identity, the desire for success, the bewildering experiences of small-town misfits leaving home for the bright lights of New York City. But Whitaker turns these motifs on their heads simply by changing the direction of the road and populating it with women.
Glynnis MacNicol - New York Times Book Review


Well-wrought and evocative.… [Mel and Sharon’s] partnership, which is at once fervent and wonderfully unsentimental, gives The Animators its soul.
Washington Post


Memorable, sure-handed, and absorbing.
Boston Globe


This novel is the holy grail; it’s the rare novel that explores and examines the deep friendship and professional lives of two women [and] keeps that focus.
Baltimore Sun


Difficult to forget long after finishing the last few pages.… [This breakout novel] fills a literary gap, which has been waiting for a tale of millennial female friendship and love without tacky genre borders or stereotypes.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette


The Animators is inspiring in its freshness and its authenticity, one of the most original and raw books I’ve read in a long time. I look forward to more Whitaker novels to add to my library.
Dallas Morning News


Abiding friendships…are rarely portrayed with such nuance and humor as in this first novel, a nimble comedic turn edged with shadow.
Oprah Magazine


Suffused with humor, tragedy and deep insights about art and friendship.
People


[A] stunning debut.
Variety


A compulsively readable portrait of women as incandescent artists and intimate collaborators.
Elle


Whitaker’s vivid debut traces the lives of friends who bond over their rural Southern upbringings, then become an avant-garde animation duo with a cult following and uncomfortable fame.
Entertainment Weekly


(Starred review.) [O]utstanding.… Whitaker skillfully charts the creative process, its lulls and sudden rushes of perfect inspiration.… [S]he has created something wonderful and exceptional: a rich, deep, and emotionally true connection that will certainly steal the hearts of readers.
Publishers Weekly


In this fine first novel, Whitaker captures the human frailties that beset everyone—jealousy, anger, insecurity, trauma, the search for love—and weaves them into a compelling story of friendship, self-destruction, and salvation. —Joanna Burkhardt, Univ. of Rhode Island Libs., Providence
Library Journal


Visceral…utterly compelling…with the nonstop tension of a soap opera.
Booklist


(Starred review.) Unexpected and nuanced and pulsing with life, Whitakers debut cuts straight to the heart …with such precision and sharpness that its hard to let [her characters] go. Empathetic but never sentimental; a book that creeps up on you and then swallows you whole.
Kirkus Reviews