Library Journal (June 1, 2013)

Winner of the Sonja H. Stone Prize in Fiction for his story collection, Churchboys & Other Sinners, Allen begins this captivating, fable-laced story with a poor young oaf, referred to as Boy, who lives in a world where human beings are ruled by small giants. After the loss of Boy’s “man,” Boy is offered by his father a “female man” named Red Sleeves, wrapped in a red ribbon with a note: “Every boy should have a man. You’re a fine son. Love, Dad.” Thus begins an imaginative and honest epic, weaving together biblical stories, fantasy, poetry, and fairy tales with a touch of realism. As Boy journeys through centuries, lands, wars, and empires, encountering characters struggling with the duality of being human and oaf, Allen asks us to question the assumptions, -isms, and contradictions of the modern world. Powerfully elegiac, the novel’s ending stands on its own. VERDICT Recalling the humanitarian concerns of Octavia Butler’s Fledgling and the poetry of Ovid’s Metamorphosis, this book will appeal to readers of literary fiction and fantasy.—Ashanti White, Yelm, WA