"Forty years after [Stafford's] death, her sentences still gleam like knives. . . . In Stafford, there is the kingdom of childhood in all its taboos–its furtiveness and griminess. . . . Here is the fury of children. . . . Here is the full range of their dark knowledge." –Parul Seghal,
The New York Times "Boston Adventure, Stafford's debut, is like Charlotte Brontë's
Villette, a raw depiction of female isolation." –Maureen Corrigan,
Fresh Air "Stafford is not interested in flattering our sensibilities. . . . She has a remarkable ability to balance lacerating irony with a very plangent pathos." –Garth Greenwell
"Boston Adventure stands as a textbook example of formal dexterity and invention. . . . Sentence for sentence,
Boston Adventure is as beautifully composed as any American novel I have ever read." –Scott Bradfield,
Los Angeles Times
"Stafford . . . studiously recreates a certain idea of literary Boston, replete with the flavour of Henry James and William Dean Howells." –Dennis Zhou,
The Times Literary Supplement