With an evolving stable of cars, the teenagers move through various places and moments in time as they try to outrace history.

Critical reception for Only Revolutions has been divided,[3] with many reviewers commenting that the book's appeal would greatly depend on the reader.

[4][5][6] In a review for The Guardian, Steven Poole praised Only Revolutions and wrote "The book is to be admired for its sheer zest for invention, the kind of faith in ambitious literature so rare among contemporary novelists.

And though it can often be baffling and tiresome, it also has enough flashes of expressionistic brilliance and sustained deliriums of invention to justify the reach.

"[7] In contrast, Sean O'Hagan criticized the book as being "dense and overly-complicated" and commented that "There is enough experimentation here to keep academics and cyber-geeks satisfied for years to come, but long before the end—wherever that is—I was left longing for the lull and sway of a classic tale well told.