Cruddy

"Ms. Barry's trenchantly funny gift for observation spares this book from being grisly....Despite the fantastic nature of its plot, CRUDDY struck me as truer and better than the many teen dramas currently on offer from the networks and studios. Accompanied by a series of illustrations in Ms. Barry's grotesque, outsider-art style, the book's crude title and appearance belie the smooth, black wit of her dialogue....A dark little gem."

"[T]he author's ability to capture the paralyzing bleakness of despair, and her uncanny ear for dialogue, make this first novel a work of terrible beauty."

"CRUDDY is a twisted, high-energy ride through a nightmare childhood, an inventive piling-on of cruelties and misadventures. There are times, plenty of them, when the book serves up wincing amounts of gore, but with such exuberance that, like a car wreck, one finds it difficult to look away....CRUDDY is a book that can be seen through many lenses, as house-of-horrors cartoon, suspense tale, adolescent psychodrama, or all of the above."

"Because Roberta's voice is so vivid and immediate, her escapades become strangely believable....[The book's] horror-bright narrative of over-the-top mayhem and Grand Guignol comedy nearly blinds you to its plain, heartbreaking realism."