"[In Crush ,] Calhoun''s cleverest feat is blowing us along in this whirlwind of desire and possibility. As ever, Calhoun suggests, women must carve some new path through a thicket of emotional briars. That may sound grim, but rest assured this is not another tale about women''s sexuality that''s so depressing." -- The Washington Post "Ensnaring . Crush is sometimes so dry or boring it''s funny; other times it''s euphoric, magical or dramatic, and a breezy humor brushes most every page . Calhoun makes the specific universal by pointing it all back toward the puzzle most of us spend our whole lives working out: love in its many forms." -- Associated Press "Calhoun''s unnamed heroine is a literary powerhouse bursting at the seams . What becomes abundantly clear is that the true romance at the heart of the book is a recovery of self .
Crush reveals the sly ways we delude ourselves into accepting what''s good enough and the liberating ways we can recover our joie de vivre as well as our autonomy." -- The Boston Globe "Calhoun has a gift for explaining complicated emotions with concise, carefully chosen prose." -- Vulture "Ultimately, Crush explores when to realize a partnership has reached an impasse, and when to take yourself on a new adventure." --Jezebel "Her giddy new romance sets the stage for an exploration of marital constructs and what it means to seek desire at any age." --Bustle " Crush doesn''t follow a traditional novel structure. It reads like a memoir: There is minimal dialogue, even fewer scenes, and we spend most of the novel inside the narrator '' s head. Though it''s not a bad place to be--she is brilliant in her introspection and delightfully witty. She can also be exhaustingly angsty, indecisive, and self-pitying.
She is a complex character in the best way: annoyingly relatable . Instead of a dramatic affair filled with scandal and betrayal, the novel offers a raw, introspective exploration of desire and self-discovery." --The Daily Californian "Warm and smart and gripping." --Curtis Sittenfeld, New York Times bestselling author of Romantic Comedy "Ada Calhoun writes with absolute clarity about the giddiest and most destabilizing feeling--the crush. This novel made me feel dizzy and I loved every second. Calhoun can seduce me any day of the week." --Emma Straub , New York Times- bestselling author of This Time Tomorrow "The word ''crush'' often conjures the innocence of adolescence--a time when your life story isn''t yet written and anything is possible. But what happens when that dormant feeling is awakened in middle age? Ada Calhoun''s Crush is a gripping fever dream of a book leading the reader into the beguiling depths of desire, ecstasy, and obsession.
" --Molly Ringwald "Crush marks Ada Calhoun '' s arrival as a novelist, and what an incredibly explosive arrival it is. This book is a sumptuous exploration of how desire takes us over without a shred of moral hedging. A vertiginous--yet somehow also clarifying--novel that will grab you by your shoulders and shake you until you feel alive." --Isaac Fitzgerald, New York Times- bestselling author of Dirtbag, Massachusetts "I didn''t just read Crush ; I inhaled it like it would save my life. Calhoun captures the chaotic experience of a marriage''s dissolution and a new midlife romance with the insight and humor she brings to all her work. I loved this book. And I loved its honest depiction of what love can do to and for us." --Bethany Ball, author of The Pessimists "Visceral, intelligent, funny, emotional, and layered.
A revolutionary romance for the ''good girls'' among us." --Shauna Niequist, author of the New York Times bestseller I Guess I Haven''t Learned That Yet In Crush , desire is an irresistible force. Ada Calhoun is a master at capturing the way we live now, and her propulsive, witty, dreamy debut novel made me feel like I was exchanging secrets with my smartest friend. A heady delight. --Claire Dederer, nationally bestselling author of Monsters: A Fan''s Dilemma "Calhoun captures the giddy high of desire. This romp through a middle-aged crush is as smart and sharp as you''d expect from the author of Also a Poet. Calhoun''s quick-paced story invites readers to lose themselves to the possibility of love taking unexpected shapes, while also providing a jumping-off point for exploring art and culture. Regardless of how readers engage with the story, they will find in Crush an opportunity to view the world through a new lens.
" --BookPage (starred review) "Crush (such a charged word) interrogates all that we think we know about love and soul mates, commitment and conviction, while tracking the long struggle to fully become oneself and do right . [An] angsty, metaphysical, literature-besotted love story." --Booklist (starred review) "Chock-full of great lines . Anything Ada Calhoun wants to write is well worth reading." --Kirkus Review.