“A quietly moving debut novel.”
—Booklist
“Dalton’s prose [is like] a Lucinda Williams song: full of sass, sexual tension, and dive-bar cool.”
—The News & Record
“Dalton is an evocative writer…genuinely funny. She has a knack for pulling off the delightfully unexpected detail, and she keeps her story moving forward at an easy, pleasing pace. Expect more good work from Dalton.”
—Cleveland Plain Dealer
“The main character in High Strung is incredibly likeable. Worried that she’s like her mother, the underfed, sexually exhausted, pornographically overwhelmed London-dwelling adult-novel editor moves to Ohio, which she discovers is not boring but crazy in a whole new way.”
—The Kansas City Pitch Weekly
“A biting and witty story.”
—Akron Beacon Journal
“High Strung deals a dish best served with charm…it tickles the throat on the way down.”
—Tampa Tribune
“Finally, a novel for the nicotine-addled lip-biter in every woman. Relax, read, and let Dalton do your worrying for you.”
–Erika Krouse, author of Come Up and See Me Sometime
“Dalton’s characters captured me with their quirky audacity. In their fierce drive to connect, difficult truths result. Her characters love each other imperfectly-the best way they know how. High Strung is infused with the absurdities of contemporary culture, and the fallout of political adventuring in a divided country; the combination makes Dalton’s novel a timely and important debut.”
–Elizabeth Oness, author of Articles of Faith, winner of the Iowa Short Fiction Award
“Quinn Dalton exposes the hole in the emotional landscape of new-century America and fills it with sharp, discerning prose. Loss is the mortar sealing past to present in her protagonist’s personal history; hope resides in the beauty of the writing. Dalton is a writer to look out for.”
–Nancy Zafris, fiction editor of The Kenyon Review and author of The Metal Shredders
“High Strung is a family drama with kinky edges, and Quinn Dalton’s deft handling of the bombastic, outrageous and poignant is a remarkable achievement. Readers everywhere will cheer Merle Winslow as she learns no matter where we go, we can’t escape where we came from.”
–Lynn Pruett, author of Ruby River