Praise for The Unveiling:
People‘s #1 Must-Read Book of Fall
A Los Angeles Times Most Anticipated Book of Fall 2025
A Literary Hub Most Anticipated Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror Book of 2025
A Book Riot Fall 2025 Most Anticipated Book
A Town & Country Best Book of Fall 2025
A Time Most Anticipated Book of Fall 2025
A Women.com Most Anticipated Book of Fall 2025
“Part ghost story, part survivor’s tale, The Unveiling is both humorous and unsettling as hell . . . This particular kind of horror simmers and seethes, as dread outlasts fear.”—Michael Popke, Isthmus
“In this literary horror novel, a Black film scout who takes a luxury cruise (for some, that’s horror enough) to find locations for a coming big-budget movie about Shackleton’s failed expedition ends up stranded with some of her privileged fellow passengers on a remote Antarctic island, where she confronts inner demons and outer unpleasantness (the remains of stranded explorers, violent birds).”—Globe and Mail
“A mashup of Agatha Christie and H.P. Lovecraft . . . the castaways hide terrible secrets, including Striker, and the unveiling of these secrets could destroy them. Even the ice itself has ghastly history buried within it. You won’t soon forget the unsettling and compelling work that is The Unveiling.”—Arlene McKanic, BookPage
“I think, actually, that Quan Barry can do anything.”—Emily Temple, Literary Hub
“A chilling work of literary horror . . . A fitting read for spooky season.”—Town and Country
“[Striker] not only has to contend with her privileged shipmates, but the ghosts of shipwrecks past in this supernatural hair-raiser about identity, guilt, and survival.”—Shannon Carlin, Time
“Irresistible . . . The Unveiling should be a Hulu series before you finish reading this sentence — a Black film scout is marooned on an island in the Antarctic with white, rich tourists. Part dark satire, part ghost story.”—Christopher Borrelli, Chicago Tribune
“How has no one written this story before and thank goodness it’s Barry (We Ride Upon Sticks) who has, with her signature blend of ironic humor, supernatural whispers and historical context, created a horror story worthy of 21st-century concerns.”—Bethanne Patrick, Los Angeles Times
“Barry, a poet as well as a novelist, captures what happens to people when they are forced to survive at the literal ends of the world.”—Washington Post
“A sharp, hypnotic literary horror novel . . . The novel shines with the nuance, rich imagery, and social commentary that her previous three novels and five poetry collections are known for.”—Mel Hammond, Tone Madison
A luxury trip to Antarctica goes horribly wrong in Barry’s triumph of literary horror . . . A terrifying must-read set at the ends of the Earth.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“A Black film scout’s Antarctic cruise transforms into cinematic horror when she finds herself marooned, staring down horrors that may or may not be real. An inventive novel and disquieting meditation on race.”—Hamilton Caine, Boston Globe
“Rife with sardonic humor and social commentary . . . a thought-provoking exploration of the limitations of survival.”—Booklist
“Barry is an accomplished wordsmith . . . [Her prose] is often spare and sharply controlled, interrupted by visual ruptures . . . The effect is deeply disquieting, steeped in atmospheric dread and a slow-building sense of existential drift. Just when you think you've found your footing, the ice cracks.”—Clementine Doyle, Women.com
Praise for Quan Barry:
“Mesmerizing and delicate . . . A dazzling achievement . . . The rhythms are more like prayer than prose, and the puzzlelike plot yields revelations in unassuming sentences that a skimming eye could easily miss . . . The unlikeliness of the novel is exactly its magic.”—New York Times, on When I’m Gone, Look for Me in the East
“Engrossing . . . At its heart, When I’m Gone, Look for Me in the East asks questions fundamental to the human experience that will resonate regardless of the reader’s familiarity with Mongolia, and it’s bound to be beloved by book clubs.”—Boston Globe
“A wholly original, enlightening read.”—Time, on When I’m Gone, Look for Me in the East
“Spiritual and emotional . . . A journey worth taking . . . A peaceful and edifying story that can be endlessly mined for deeper meaning.”—The Rumpus, on When I’m Gone, Look for Me in the East
“A dreamlike and lyrical journey steeped in the tenets of Tibetan Buddhism.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review), on When I’m Gone, Look for Me in the East
“An imaginative tour de force . . . Evincing the same dazzling talents that won high critical praise for We Ride Upon Sticks, Barry vastly expands readers’ horizons, both geographical and metaphysical.”—Booklist (starred review), on When I’m Gone, Look for Me in the East
“The expansive imagination of Massachusetts-raised Quan Barry knows no bounds.”—WBUR, on When I’m Gone, Look for Me in the East
“Quirky, comic, and painstakingly detailed . . . Barry writes with a sustained, manic energy.”—New York Times Book Review, on We Ride Upon Sticks
“Spellbinding, wickedly fun . . . Each sentence fizzes like a just-opened bottle of New Coke.” —O, The Oprah Magazine, on We Ride Upon Sticks
“A perfect blend of aesthetic and narrative pleasure . . . Very funny and a little angry and a lot of fun.”—Maris Kreizman, on We Ride Upon Sticks
“You may come for the sizzle of genre elements here, but you’ll stay for the rich bond forged by friendships on the field, the memories of misguided youth and the power of belief.” —Variety, on We Ride Upon Sticks
“A delightful, hilarious ode to the ‘80s.” —Ms. Magazine, on We Ride Upon Sticks
“The prose style is neon and the laughs do not stop. I feel like the author wrote the entire book with an evil grin on her face.”—Vulture, on We Ride Upon Sticks
“Surprising and ultimately delightful . . . The narration is playful, making the emotional crescendos even more satisfying . . . Barry is a skilled storyteller and sentence artist who embraces irreverence where irreverence is due.”—Minneapolis Star-Tribune, on We Ride Upon Sticks
“Almost too much fun to be allowed . . . Truly a delight in every way.”—Literary Hub, on We Ride Upon Sticks
“Charming . . . [Barry is] careful not to let nostalgia paper over the real ways in which things were worse in the 1980s, particularly for queer people and people of color.” —NPR, on We Ride Upon Sticks
“Touching, hilarious, and deeply satisfying.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review), on We Ride Upon Sticks
“Haunting and beautiful . . . A deft mix of folklore, magical realism and stories of struggle.”—Los Angeles Times, on She Weeps Every Time You’re Born
“Fascinating. . . . Deeply affecting novel.”—New York Times Book Review, on She Weeps Every Time You’re Born
“The great beauty of Quan Barry’s novel is in its transcendence . . . Its attention to all the stories, whose sum is not darkness but light, not death but life.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune, on She Weeps Every Time You’re Born
“Lyrical, luminous, and suspenseful . . . Rendered with shocking clarity and pathos on the page . . . This is a Vietnam of myriad faces, myriad aspects, beautiful and terrible all at once.”—Jesmyn Ward, on She Weeps Every Time You’re Born
“Barry’s absorbing debut paints a vivid, complex portrait of a land and an era that often elude American understanding.”—Marie Claire, on She Weeps Every Time You’re Born
“Mesmerizing . . . [Barry] writes with stunning language, which carries the novel and elevates moments of heartbreak, despair, and perseverance.”—Publishers Weekly, on She Weeps Every Time You’re Born
“Fierce, stunning, and devastating. Readers haunted by . . . Chang-rae Lee’s A Gesture Life, and Tan Twan Eng’s The Gift of Rain will revel in it.”—Library Journal (starred review), on She Weeps Every Time You’re Born
