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REVIEWS

Praise for ANHEDONIA and EMPTY CALORIES

Foreword

"By turns dark, humorous, and wistful, Empty Calories and Male Curiosity, a coming-of-age novel in short stories, captures the contradictions of youth...In an inevitable, bitter progression, whatever solace Theodore manages to find is snuffed out; Midland Park returns to its ground state of disengagement and ennui each time. In this way, the town itself becomes a central character: a passive antagonist, akin to a force of nature, that sits between its residents and the freedom they crave. 5/5."

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Kirkus

"A quietly affecting series of recollections, at once light and full." (Starred Review)

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BookLife

"McLoof's latest collection is immersive, capturing the sharp angst of those in-between years and the ensuing navigation into adulthood."

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Independent Book Review

"His eyes are innocent, searching, and protective as he interprets his parents’ progressive distancing and matter-of-factly recalls the demise of a friendship years in the future. This is a voice that accumulates power over time, allowing the collection to feel less like discrete stories and more like the long, unbroken aging—childhood confusion becomes uneasy self-awareness, despair becomes sober acceptance. By condensing this stretch of time into a singular voice, lines between past and future get blurred and we find ourselves living in the mind of someone who is forever caught in the place and time they were born into."

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Midwest Book Review

"Original, deftly crafted, thoughtful and thought-provoking, the skillfully-written stories comprising 'Empty Calories and Male Curiosity: Stories'....will linger in the mind and memory of the reader long after the book has been finished and put back on the shelf."

Kirkus

On ANHEDONIA: "A skillful, incisive, and smartly conceived set of tales."

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