The New York Times' Holland Cotter writes, "Television soap opera is Mr. Linzy's primary, though not sole, inspiration. And this particular melodrama, with its Byzantine subplots, revolves around the tortured emotional life of a voluble young woman named Nucuazia and the death of an acquaintance named JoJo, whom we take to be her lover, in a drive-by shooting. The story has oodles of intrigue (not to mention loose ends), heartbreak aplenty (crying jags culminating in a confrontational, cathartic memorial service) and at least one major surprise...If most of the characters, including Nucuazia's sharp-tongued mother, soft-touch grandmother, wastrel brother and brusque corporate executive sister, share an uncanny family resemblance, it is because Mr. Linzy plays them all, brilliantly."