Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

Eccentric Cheryl lives alone and works most days from home (her bosses' suggestion) for women's self-defense and fitness company Open Palm. She struggles with globus hystericus a perpetual lump in the throat combined with an inability to cry and tries to refind a baby she met and felt instantly connected to when she was 9, over and over again. When Cheryl allows her bosses' 21-year-old daughter, Clee, to live with her as a favor, and after a long-dreamed-of love confession from Open Palm board member Phillip turns out to be something else, however, Cheryl's ordered world is wildly flipped, making way for sexual obsession and disorder in a way Cheryl may have long tried to avoid. Filmmaker (Me and You and Everyone We Know, 2005, The Future, 2011), short story writer (No One Belongs Here More Than You, 2007), and artist (Learning to Love You More, 2007) July uses novel-length fiction her first and a first-person narrative to her advantage in telling one woman's deeply psychological, often funny, and certainly unconventional story cinematically.--Bostrom, Annie Copyright 2014 Booklist

Publishers Weekly
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Middle-aged, quirky, and socially awkward Cheryl leads a solitary life and has an unusual imagination. In addition to sexual fantasies involving her senior coworker Phillip, Cheryl, who is unmarried, also imagines a connection with babies. When her bosses' ask her to temporarily take in their hostile, selfish 20-year-old daughter, Clee, Cheryl's life fundamentally changes-negatively at first, but ultimately for the better. July's original and distinctive writing style is matched by her highly entertaining narration: she embodies the character completely, making her very sympathetic, and her wonderfully understated tone of voice highlights Cheryl's quirkiness and makes it funnier (saying bizarre things in a very calm, neutral voice, as though it's all perfectly normal). Listeners with a taste for whimsical humor and eccentric characters will love this memorable audiobook. A Scribner hardcover. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Library Journal
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Starred Review. July is a quirky creator working in many media, so much so that she was the subject of an Onion article titled "Miranda July Called Before Congress To Explain Exactly What Her Whole Thing Is." She has an award-winning short story collection (No One Belongs Here More Than You), films (The Future), and performance art pieces under her belt, but this is her first novel. The author's protagonist is Cheryl, a lonely middle-aged woman invested in her work for a company that produces self-defense exercise videos. Cheryl's incredibly regimented life is interrupted by Clee, a young, irresponsible houseguest who won't leave. Cheryl's problems start out predictably, but her inner monolog and way of coping with loneliness and alienation are anything but typical. Her obsession with an older coworker leads her to explore her sexuality and gender identity, and through Clee she learns about herself and fulfills a lifelong desire to care for a child born to the "wrong" mother. VERDICT This well-written, compelling novel will delight the open-minded reader looking for something new. It will satisfy July's fans and win her many more. [See Prepub Alert, 7/7/14.]-Kate Gray, Worcester P.L., MA (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

July's (No One Belongs Here More Than You) first novel's mannered, grim quirkiness is unlikely to disappoint her longtime fans, but listeners unfamiliar with July's work should be prepared for an unnerving book, the humor of which rests on satire and frequently veers into obscenity but which is remarkably sophisticated for a debut novel. July manages tender observations about human connection and our internal lives, and the novel as a whole has a pleasing terrarium-like quality, rendering as it does a small, isolated, neatly ordered world, perhaps with a deficit of fresh air, but still with enough surprise to be interesting. Cheryl initially seems to be a hapless 43-year-old woman with odd ways of structuring her life. She works for a not-for-profit organization that teaches self-defense to women, run by a couple who maneuver her into taking their voluptuous, sloth-like daughter in as a "roommate." Cheryl's relationship with Clee plays out in surprising ways, illuminating the development of Cheryl's particular tastes and reflecting back to the reader a meditation on the personal nature of desire and purpose and how the meaning in our lives sometimes jumps out and ambushes us. July herself reads, her narration suiting the character and mood of the novel perfectly. VERDICT Recommended to July's fans and those who enjoy quirky fiction. ["This well-written, compelling novel will delight the open-minded reader looking for something new," read the starred review of the Scribner hc, LJ 9/15/14.]-Heather Malcolm, Bow, WA © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly
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July (No One Belongs Here More than You) successfully transitions from short stories to her first novel, introducing eccentric 40-something Cheryl Glickman in a tale about role-playing. In addition to sexual fantasies featuring her senior co-worker Phillip, unmarried Cheryl also imagines a perennial connection with babies. Her world is flipped upside down when Clee, her boss's 20-year-old daughter, moves in until she can get on her feet. Cheryl's fantasies soon involve Clee with any man that passes by, and she becomes aroused when Clee plays along with self-defense scenarios. When Phillip starts a relationship with a 16-year-old girl, Cheryl grows closer with Clee, switching between roles as her enemy, sparring partner, mother, grandmother, aunt, and girlfriend. Other characters give, or refuse to give, their own performances, including Clee's parents, who refuse to act as grandparents when she gets pregnant, and Cheryl's therapist, who plays mistress to the other office doctor. Cheryl and Clee's simulated fights in the first half will remind readers of July's peculiar short-story style, but the book hits its stride in the second half when Cheryl helps Clee through her pregnancy. July's writing is strange and beautiful, with enough cleverness woven into the characters' strange fantasy lives to keep readers contemplating the family roles and games adults undertake. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

In a bizarrely touching first novel, July (It Chooses You, 2011, etc.) brings the characteristic humor, frankness and emotional ruthlessness of her previous work in film, prose and performance to a larger canvas. Cheryl Glickman lives a lonely, precisely arranged life afflicted by mysterious neuroses, including the persistent sensation of a lump in her throat. She obsesses over Phillip Bettelheim, a board member of the nonprofit where she works, and the belief that she keeps meeting a familiar, beloved soul embodied in the babies of strangers. Afflicted by a host of anxieties, both believable and outrageous, Cheryl keeps her world tightly ordered until Clee, her bosses' aggressively rude and monstrously provocative daughter, comes to stay in her house and sets off a sequence of fantasies and disasters that violently transform Cheryl's life. Told in Cheryl's own confiding, unfiltered voice, the novel slides easily between plot and imagination, luring the reader so deeply into Cheryl's interior reality that the ridiculous inventions of her life become progressively more and more convincing. Cheryl acts out simulations from self-defense DVDs with Clee as self-prescribed therapy for her timidity and globus hystericus burdened throat. She becomes fixated on creating graphic, sometimes-perverted sexual fantasies between Clee and a multitude of other people. Her therapist becomes the receptionist of another therapist three times a year as part of "an immensely satisfying adult game." Though these strange details sometimes seem to slide into heavy-handed attempts to shock, at their best, they deliver an emotional slap made sharper and more fitting by their oddity. A sometimes-funny, sometimes-upsetting, surprisingly absorbing novel that lives up to the expectations created by July's earlier work and demonstrates her ability to carry the qualities of her short fiction into the thickly fleshed-out world of a novel. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.