“Maya is not polite, and although I found her captivating and charming, Sharma’s goal is not to make her likable. Maya is as horrible, and as fully human, as men in literature have always been allowed to be.”
—The New York Times Sunday Book Review
“Sharma’s lucid intelligence makes this story of the death throes of a marriage between a junkie and an alcoholic impossible to get out of your mind.”
—Vulture
“Debut novelist Jade Sharma writes in a voice that is equal parts irreverent and hilarious, depressive and hopeful, and Problems was by far one of the most interesting and uncommon books I read this year.”
—Bustle
“With searing honesty and an unflinching gaze, Sharma brilliantly dismantles the brittle structures that so many young women today have built around themselves in the hopes that eventually the interior will match what’s on the outside.”
—Nylon
“In Maya’s voice, Sharma has crafted a momentous force that never flags and feels painfully honest."
—Publishers Weekly, starred review
“[Maya’s] problems could fill a book—and in fact, they do, in a brisk, mordantly funny, fragmented narrative that is refreshingly honest, despite the fact that Maya is a liar.”
—The Los Angeles Times
“Funny and perfect.”
—A.V. Club
“Problems is filled with sharp dialogue, perfectly crafted one-liners and succinct observations . . .”
—The Guardian
"Problems challenges readers to forget traditional redemption stories and yet to still find empathy for the messiest of heroines.”
—Esquire
“Problems is a book that wrestles with you; you will try to put it down but you’ll be unsuccessful.”
—Bust
“[Problems is] complex and unflinching, but it’s among those messy ruins of her self-made life that I found myself feeling oddly and genuinely uplifted.”
—Guernica
“Dark, funny, relentless.”
—ELLE
“Unsettling, aware, self-conscious, vivid, honest, gorgeous—Problems does it all, all while eschewing traditional expectations of story, plot, and character.”
—Vol. 1 Brooklyn
“One of the best books I’ve read this year, if not one of the best books I’ve read in a long time. . . . A stunning novel.”
—Book Riot Podcast
“Problems is a novel of tragic souls and their predicaments that manages to be consistently hilarious and a rip-roaring read.”
—The Irish Times
“Jade Sharma is the appalling, hilarious love child of Denis Johnson and Maggie Estep, and Problems is as unrepentant and transgressive a novel as they come. Every coming-of-age story except this one is a lie.”
—Elisa Albert
“Searing. Brutal. Sublime. Hysterical. Terrifying. Exacting. Essential. Indelible. Unforgettable.”
—Dale Peck
“The self-degrading, self-knowing narrator of Jade Sharma’s Problems dares to recount her beyond messy life in clean, lucid—and often funny—prose.”
—David Gates
