from the reviews
"Electrifying...Sweetgirl is hilarious, heartbreaking and true...a major accomplishment."
(NPR)
"Travis Mulhauser delivers the perfect balance of humor and heartache in this masterful debut novel about family, self-reliance, and atonement."
(Ploughshares Best Books of the New Year)
"A lean gutpunch of a novel surfaced from Cutler County this month, and its name is Sweetgirl—a lyrical tale that practically demands to be read in a single sitting." (Paste Magazine)
"...chillingly lyrical and filled with a love so raw and fierce it takes your breath." (The Charlotte Observer)
"...so, so compelling. Read-in-a-day, stay-up-all-night compelling....Cutler County is beautiful and brutal." (Emerald Street/UK)
"...it is the flawless portrayal of the flawed character Shelton that makes this novel so good...There is no callow romanticising here. Instead, there is an appreciation of the truth and a resistance to reductive thinking...this book must be read." (Literary Review/UK)
"...a blistering, darkly humorous story..." (Reader's Digest UK)
‘The author has a wonderful direct and deadpan style that balances the tension with some black humor, but there's more to it than that. Despite taking place in the coldest of places with the meanest of characters, there's surprising human warmth at its heart.” (Geeklife/UK)
“[A] blackly comic novel…Featuring echoes of True Grit’s Mattie Ross and Winter’s Bone’s Ree Dolly, Percy is a fearless, funny and stubborn leading lady.” (Shortlist/UK)
"...you can't help but smile at this disarmingly original novel...(the events possess) a devastating credibility..." (Minneapolis Star-Tribune)
"Mulhauser’s novel never seeks out the calm in converging storms. It runs headlong, with lean yet poetic prose, into every gust of trouble, every squall of violence, every white-out heartbreak...finally, Sweetgirl wonders about home, about what happens when you’re born into the wrong one, into a place that gets into your blood but a people that break your heart. What happens when home is just another storm?" (Pop Matters)
"The writing is gorgeous and the stakes rise steadily from the moment Percy first sets out, making this slim novel surprisingly vicious and taut." (Book Riot)
"...one fantastic novel." (Salisbury Post)
"...smart, taught, and believable...no wonder readers are rooting for (Percy and Portis)..." (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
"Mulhauser evocatively describes the bleak landscape and starkly degraded social mores of an isolated community ..."(Publisher's Weekly)
"Be prepared for a wild ride in this riveting read...a story in which even the vilest character elicits sympathy. Mulhauser is a craftsman..." (eMissourian)
"...told in Percy’s spirited first-person voice, this is an acute study of lives lived at the margins of society and the redemptive power of innocence..." (Booklist)
"...fine writing and memorable characters...a solid pick for readers who enjoy Woodrell or Tom Franklin." (Library Journal)
"...a suspenseful tale of sadness and redemption." (The Durham Herald Sun)
"In his first novel, Travis Mulhauser tells a page-turning adventure..." (Raleigh News & Observer)
"...a harrowing, cinematic tour de force set in the desolate woods of Northern Michigan...Mulhauser is a master craftsman..." (Monkeybicycle)
