On the night of 14 November 1940, as the Luftwaffe firebomb the city, Cassie wanders its streets amid the inferno and destruction, conversing with living and dead individuals.

In a review on SF Site, Gabe Mesa described The Facts of Life as "a deceptively gentle masterpiece of magical realism".

[4] He said it is an appealing mix of social commentary, humour, history and fantasy, and called it "among the best of recent English language novels in the magical realist vein.

[8] Priest said the book's "quality of writing, the detail and insight into the social background" has all the makings of literary fiction, but the fantasy elements resulted in it being labelled a genre novel.

[8] In The Washington Post Zofia Smardz described The Facts of Life as "an astute portrait of England pulling itself together after the devastation of World War II".

[9] Reviewing the book in the Library Journal, Christine Perkins felt that Joyce was "less success[ful]" with this historical novel than with his dark fantasies.

In a review in the British Science Fiction Association magazine, Vector, he called The Facts of Life "an accomplished study of a working class family in post-war Britain", and the images of Cassie's "unusual escapades" during the Blitz, "brilliant".