David Abrams, the acclaimed author of FOBBIT and literary brain behind the site The Quivering Pen released a review today of PEOPLE LIKE YOU that was the kind of review writers dream of receiving. Here’s a snippet:

Of all the books I read in 2015—and there were many—few infected me quite like People Like You by Margaret Malone. This debut collection of stories embodies everything I love about short fiction: it dances on boxer’s feet, moves in quick, punches hard, and then leaves my head ringing.

He goes on:

These stories stir up the kind of excitement in my readerly bones that I haven’t felt since I first read the works of writers like Raymond Carver, Richard Ford, Jamie Quatro, Ron Carlson, Benjamin Percy, Lee Smith, and even Ernest Hemingway. Yes, I’d unhesitatingly add Margaret Malone to that pantheon of authors. Her work embodies the best qualities of each of those writers: terse, detailed, empathetic fiction that is very often funny as hell.

You can see how my head pretty much exploded when I read the full review.

As a writer, what I always hope for first and foremost is to connection – to find a reader who gets what I’m trying to do; then, to find a reader who not only gets it but loves it… there is nothing in the whole wide writing world better than that.

My deepest, most humble thanks to David Abrams for writing such a thoughtful, beautiful  and beautifully-written review.

I am over the moon.