Trash Sex Magic Reviews

Publisher's Weekly
June 15, 2004
Filled with oddly bent characters, lovingly detailed descriptions of the Illinois countryside, and just the right amount of magic, Stevenson's first novel is at once sexy, beautifully written and passing strange.
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Booklist
June, 2004
Vivid, strange, pulsing with life, this is an unforgettable debut by a promising author. -Patricia Monaghan
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GreenManReview.com
If you are looking for a multi-layered treatise on Goddess archetypes, if you're looking for a fantasy that isn't quite dark, isn't quite urban, or if you're just looking for a funny, well-written trashy novel, this book is definetely for you. Surreal, and full of delightful weirdness, this has quickly become my most-recommended book of the year. -Wes Unruh
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LOCUS, June 2004
That storm scene early in the book is a good example of Jennifer Stevenson's impact as a writer - the "Wow!" factor. Trash Sex Magic can sweep you up and leave you dazzled, miles from home.
-Faren Miller
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Evanston Roundtable, June 2, 2004
Readers who like stories about tangled lives, repressed emotions, manipulation, competition will find this is the love story for them. "Trash Sex Magic," appropriately named, is a sophisticated trashy novel, intense and raw.
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Gene Wolfe, author of The Knight
"It was a proverb of the 16th Century: On Hallowmass Eve troll notte
thy broomstick bye ye caravan park, for thou wottist notte who maye mount
thereon. I had paid it little heed since learning it years ago, and
planned to read this grand book one chapter at a time. I'd scarcely begun the
second when I fell under the author's spell."

John Crowley, author of The Translator
"It's to Chicago what Mysteries of Pittsburgh is to Pittsburgh and A
Winter's Tale is to New York -- a winning, touching, open-eyed love
letter -- but with trash, sex, and magic too. Unusual and wonderfully done."

Ellen Kushner, author of Swordspoint
"Ambitious, phantasmagorical, with images that burn into our brain and stay there, even when the book is off in a corner somewhere minding its own business."

Audrey Niffenegger, author of The Time Traveler's Wife
"This just absolutely rocks. It's lyrical, it's weird and it's sexy in a very funky way. Trash Sex Magic is full of people you would maybe be afraid to meet in real life, but once you've met them fictionally you are damn sorry you can't at least have a beer with them."

Cynthia Harrison, Garage Band
"Part creation myth, part sexual allegory, Jennifer Stevenson's trash sex magic is a rare, gorgeous read. The haunting world Stevenson builds is not so much surreal as it is a glimpse of the mystical simmering just below the surface of everyday life."
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Broad Universe
"Just like the setting that is its principal character, Trash Sex Magic by Jennifer Stevenson is steeped in magic. As power flows up from the ley lines along the Fox River in Illinois, transforming everyone it touches, so Stevenson's words wrap themselves around you until you are rooted in place, ensnared by a beauty both kindly and ruthless."
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Victoria Doyle, Fantasybookspot.com
"Written in a liquid prose that mirrors the natural magic of Stevenson's sensuous environment and populated by mysteriously sexualised protagonists, this is a book that combines the dynamics of magical realism with those of romance and fantasy."
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