[9] Reviews in The New York Times, the Star Tribune, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Paste also praised the collection.
[3][17] It was described by The Washington Post as "Louisa May Alcott meets Shirley Jackson, with a splash of Margaret Atwood",[13] and by The New York Times as "astoundingly original".
[19] Beams' second novel The Garden was published in 2024, and she has said it was inspired by the history of diethylstilbestrol, a drug prescribed to pregnant women in the mistaken belief that it would prevent miscarriage but that instead caused serious adverse side effects.
[20] The New York Times observed that "the genius of the novel is the way Beams continually intertwines fictional elements with true-to-life obstetric practices".
[20] The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette noted that "like her previous work, [Beam] writes with her eyes wide open, completely unafraid to embrace the macabre".