Grouping it among three books essential for Carey's fans, Lorie Liebig of American Songwriter considered it "an entertaining and enlightening read".
[2] Library Journal reviewer Jessica Durham described the book as "an excellent look at a great artist.
Taylor compared his "rigorous close-readings of her lyrics, voice, and performances" to the prose in Mythologies, a 1957 book by Roland Barthes.
[6] Durham favored the way his "beautiful descriptions of Carey's songs, lyrics, and performances aid in the difficult task of bringing sound to life solely through words".
[3] Citing the sentence "I like to picture her voice as a kind of cosmic seeker, stretching its tentacles into weird little pockets of sound", Publishers Weekly felt Chan's writing was occasionally overblown.