Haley Joel Osment and Dakota Fanning (unrelated to their child star namesakes, though they are the same ages the actors were at the time the book was published) are friends who initially met online and converse with each other regularly through Gmail chat.

He also claimed to have offered Kennedy any royalties from Yates, and to have requested that Melville House withdraw it from circulation.

Expressing a desire to focus solely on the book without needing to maintain an income for living expenses, Lin said, "I actually will work better on my second novel, the way the novel is right now, if I have no obligations or responsibilities at all."

"[6] Others were more forgiving; Charles Bock's mostly negative review for The New York Times allowed that Lin could be "genuinely funny" and that "When Haley Joel and Dakota find solace in each other through small, intimate gestures, or in descriptions of Dakota’s defeated parents, Lin’s flat style resonates.

"[7] The Boston Globe's review said Lin's writing had "the effect of putting a red butterfly behind glass: detached but brighter.