"Penn delivers prose as if he were gunning for a prize from the American Alliteration Association."
In a review with with "What Is Sean Penn Thinking?" in the headline, The Washington Post points out alliterations in the book including “Dreams died like destiny’s deadwood,” "Spurley sloppily slurps,” and “racial rancor by Ruger in a country rife with rule of law.”
"Scattered throughout is the sort of gleeful racism and misogyny that qualifies Penn’s work as 'darkly comic.'"
HuffPost calls the book a "garbage novel" that is "nonsensical, unpleasant and left me sweaty with mingled horror and confusion."
The book's epilogue is a poem about the #MeToo movement that is not getting well-received.