: Once they decide something is off-limits, they often stop thinking about it entirely, which saves significant mental energy.

: It is easier to have none of something than to have "just a little bit".

: McGuire masterfully recreates the "pungent atmosphere" of a Victorian industrial city, including slaughterhouses and rat-baiting arenas.

: Critics from The New York Times note the ending is "jarring, heartbreaking—and brilliant".

“The conclusion seems inevitable, somehow even more so when it turned out not to be the one I’d been anticipating... The scene is jarring, heartbreaking—and brilliant.” The New York Times · 5 years ago Personality Review: Are You an Abstainer?