Diana Wallace classes her in a group of Welsh women fiction authors writing after 1968 whose work in some way tackles the "changes brought by feminism", together with Glenda Beagan, Alice Thomas Ellis, Siân James, Mary Jones, Clare Morgan and Bernice Rubens.
[15] David Robson, in a mixed review for The Sunday Telegraph, calls the novel a "highly assured début" which is "sharply observed"; he praises the beginning, but notes that the symmetrical set-up slows down the plot, leading to "too much navel-watching and not enough action.
[3] Peter Matthews, writing in The Observer, describes the novel as a "simple and sometimes simplistic" portrayal of urban violence, but within its limited perspective, "uncannily exact in conveying that mixture of fear, rage, nausea and shame that every embattled city-dweller feels".
She praises the novel's depiction of the Welsh scenery "without sentimentality or caricature", noting parallels between the widowed protagonist's changed life and the threat that mining poses to the landscape.
[20] Davidson, in a short review for The Telegraph, praises the novel's "crisp writing, sharp dialogue and shrewd characterisation", and describes parts as having "real pathos".
[22] The academic Jane Aaron comments that the novel depicts a woman appealing to "traditional Welsh values of community and respect for nature" to fight for modern environmental causes.
[25] Merriman's first collection of stories, Silly Mothers, was shortlisted for 1992 Wales Book of the Year,[10] and her short fiction has twice won a Rhys Davies short-story award, in 1991[citation needed] and 1998.
[29] Her short-story collections, together with those of the other Welsh authors Leonora Brito, Clare Morgan, Siân James and Glenda Beagan, have been described by Michelle Deininger as having "changed the direction of the form further, exploring issues such as race, female identity, ageing, and Welsh-language learning.
"[32] Andy Beckett describes "Barbecue", Merriman's contribution to the Penguin anthology, as "contemporary picaresque" and compares it with the work of the Scottish author, Duncan McLean.
[27] David Lloyd considers Merriman's "One Day" among the highlights of the anthology Mama's Baby (Papa's Maybe) & Other Stories: New Welsh Short Fiction (1999), commenting that its "language sparkles and delights".