One of the characters, Grandma Harken, is the protagonist of another award-winning story by Vernon, "The Tomato Thief."
When a young man accidentally mutilates a jackalope wife, his Grandma Harken takes charge of her.
[3] As well, an analysis at Io9 indicated that, if not for the Sad Puppies ballot-manipulation campaign, "Jackalope Wives" would have been a finalist for the 2015 Hugo Award for Best Short Story.
[5] At Locus, Lois Tilton commended Vernon's "(f)ine prose imagery and dialogue, strong characters, (and) neat invented folklore".
[6] Strange Horizons noted that, by basing the story on "a piece of inauthentic kitsch", Vernon avoided issues of cultural appropriation.