"...Clever lines drop down on these pages like flowers thrown on a casket...[a] zany, increasingly dark comedy..."
– The Washington Post "Toltz... is smart, imaginative and funny, unafraid to lob a literary grenade into hard-held beliefs of humankind. He uses
Here Goes Nothing as a jumping-off point to parody the perversity and stubbornness of human nature and to highlight our uneasy relationship with mortality. Think of it as a comic, modern-day
Divine Comedy with more intercourse and fewer opportunities to reach Paradise."
– The Star Tribune "Enjoyable as social commentary, a philosophical exploration of life's meaning, an inventive, pop-culture-referencing mystery-of-sorts or simply a good yarn, "Here Goes Nothing" makes for rich, reflective, involving reading."
–The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Surreal, sharply funny and as dark as the grave. Fans of noir fiction and quirky thrillers ... will dig right in."
– Shelf Awareness
"With a stygian sense of humour, Toltz persuasively argues that humanity, for all the progress made, has achieved little of substance other than finding new ways of distracting itself as the world burns...
Here Goes Nothing works because we care about Angus, Grace, and Owen. It would have been easy for Toltz to depict them as caricatures; instead, they are three wonderfully flawed but sympathetic individuals."
– Locus Magazine
"Toltz's wit and black humor transform a morbid premise into a rollicking ride. The result is an audaciously creative imagining of what awaits after death."
– Publishers Weekly "Toltz (
Quicksand, 2015) revels in the irony of an afterlife skeptic forced into a ghastly second act. Angus' narration is thick with zingy one-liners pointing up the absurdity of it all... an exploration of big feels, among them the slow-spreading dread of societal cataclysm, the grief of watching one's beloved embrace a new partner, and the fear that now may be as good as it gets."
– Booklist
"You may laugh or weep and be shocked or outraged, but you won't be bored. You may even develop a greater understanding of human nature – even as it plays out in the hereafter."
- The Washington Independent Review of Books
"Outlandishly satisfying and timely...this is highly intelligent reading of the tallest order with much to unpack." –
Bookreporter
"Here Goes Nothing is a thought-provoking work that's perfect for anyone whose dim view of our planetary existence is tempered by hope in something better than a doctrinaire ending."
– Criminal Element
