Praise for A Long Thaw

Katie O’Rourke writes brilliantly about the craggy landscape of young adulthood. Childhood lessons and loyalties clash with the insuppressible urge to make new connections, romantic relationships are seldom easy or drama-free and sometimes, a return to family is exactly what is needed. A Long Thaw is a rich, nuanced story about something universal: the attempt to be happy with ourselves and hopefully, with someone else. A big-hearted and deep-thinking novel about two young women navigating the peaks and valleys of love while relying on their friendship and family bond to keep them balanced along the way.

                                                           -Mary Vensel White, The Qualities of Wood

A Long Thaw carries many of the same wonderful qualities that made Monsoon Season such an impressive debut and extends them into a somewhat more expansive sophomore novel. O’Rourke’s prose has a definite talent for drawing me into the story from the first page; the world of her fiction comes to life with impressive clarity and her characters are immediately interesting. (read more)
                                                           -Casee Marie, Literary Inklings

This broken family sets out to make things right, because life goes on, and as long as life goes on, there will be more chances to get it right. (read more)
                                                          -April Wood, A Well Read Woman

A Long Thaw is a gentle and beautifully written novel, and it easily draws you into the worlds of Abby and Juliet with perceptive observations and carefully chosen details. It's a story of past and future, hopes and regrets, shot through with the aching sense of loss that accompanies the knowledge inevitably gained by growing up: that things will never be the same again.

Moving, honest, thought-provoking and highly recommended.
                                                                            -Alice Adams