Praise for The End of Mr. Y:

“Smart, stylish, and dizzying . . . Thomas understands that a spoonful of escapism helps the phenomenology go down, and she obliges with a breakneck thriller of a plot that includes collapsing buildings, renegade C.I.A. agents and debauched sex . . . Thomas writes with marvelous panache . . . She spins Derrida and subatomic theory into a wholly enchanting alternate universe that should appeal to a wide popular audience, and that’s something no deconstructionist or physicist has managed to do. Consider The End of Mr. Y an accomplished, impressive thought experiment for the 21st century.”
—Gregory Cowles, The New York Times Book Review

“Exhilarating... Ariel breathlessly pursues the ‘what ifs?’ whose answers govern our reality, teasing out a conclusion that, while nimbly detangling several plot strands, leaves others tantalizingly unresolved. Like the novel within her novel, Thomas’s Mr. Y burrows into the reader’s brain, stoking a desire for real-world exploration.”
—Carolyn Juris, Time Out New York

“Welcome to the delirious world of Mr. Y. I read this book quickly, obsessively… I just loved reading this book more than doing just about anything else.”
—Bookslut

“As a cult novel, The End of Mr. Y is brilliant . . . It’s a solid, smart, idea-driven, dare I say ‘fun’ story . . . The concepts presented are persuasive, interesting, and impressively mind-blowing. I only wish this novel had been published when I was younger and more open to grandiose ideas like the meanings of life and time. It would have given House of Leaves a run for its money.”
—PopMatters.com

“The NeverEnding Story. Being John Malkovich. A Wrinkle in Time. Proof. The End of Mr. Y, by Scarlett Thomas, is a brilliant combination of those past works, with an original flair for mapping a convoluted ‘journey of science, faith, consciousness, death, and everything in between.’ ”
—VenusZine.com


Praise for PopCo.:

"Enough code-breaking tips, puzzles and graphs, charts, postscripts and appendixes to satisfy that other mathematician storyteller, Lewis Carroll. The two strands of the plot come together in a pleasingly paradoxical ending . . .PopCo seems meant to tweak those on both sides of the corporate divide, the protestors on the outside of the office block and suits within."
—New York Times Book Review

"The author weaves her scathing critique of consumerism into an intriguing meditation on the nature of 21st century identity, a contemporary bildungsroman about Alice's moral education. The intricate explanations of cryptoanalysis are surprisingly fascinating. Thomas' answer puts her firmly in the line of proletarian writers from the 1930s and radical novelists from the '60s counterculture like Marge Piercy. You might say that Thomas has redefined activism for the Digital Age. It's a pleasure to see her cigarette- and dope-smoking misfits decide there's more to life than hanging out and cracking wise. We've grown fond of odd, vulnerable Alice, so we're glad that she's found a community as well as a cause. The postmodern trimmings can't disguise the fact that "PopCo" is at heart a novel of social protest, and Thomas shouldn't shy away from that. Inspired by a venerable tradition, she achieves here a scope and a passion to match the intelligence and empathy her fiction has always had."
—LA Times Book Review

"Peppered with curious clues and mysterious diaries, PopCo, by the British-born author of the 2001 mystery Bright Young Things, cleverly combines revelations about Alice's past with a jaundiced look at the culture that created the manipulative toy empire. [3 1/2 STARS]"
—People

"PopCo offers a critique on the power struggles between those who run corporations and the underlings whose ideas fuel the machine —the "creatives," as Thomas wryly calls them. The novel will appeal most to those who came of age in our current toy-glutted culture. "
—Washington Post

""PopCo" is written for the cat owner, the disillusioned cyberpunk, the RPGamer; for those who embrace counterculture AND the popular culture, for those who read "The DaVinci Code" and wanted to hear more about the Fibonacci number and wanted less "man without parachute jumps from airplane and survives" scoffing...this is an updated "Westing Game" for the 'net generation.

If you are a book person who claims to have a math phobia because it is expected of you, while secretly reveling in code-breaking, strings of prime numbers, lateral thinking puzzles, and crosswords? (Okay, maybe crosswords are generally considered the domain of the English-y among us), then read this book." —Lumino magazine (online) 3 stars for art, 4 stars for entertainment

"If Cryptonomicon and “Fight Club” jointly impregnated Thursday Next, then PopCo would be their unholy demon seed. That’s a good thing. Alice, the instantly likable protagonist, is equal parts Cayce Pollard and Thursday Next – a socially awkward but oddly gifted cool-hunter, whose special power is to sense patterns where most people see only randomness. Some subplots, like the piratical history lesson of Francis Stevenson and his encoded treasure map, are so enthralling and elaborately detailed that even if they’re not true, they really should be. It even has a vegan recipe and some handy reference tables at the back, and if that doesn’t sell you, then I don’t know what will. Sprawling, imaginative, clever, and absorbing, PopCo is a thinking person’s adventure tale, and will delight any reader who embraces their inner four-eyed, scholastically inclined, geeky misfit. And it has pirates! Resistance is futile. Buy PopCo now and accept your nerdy destiny." —Steph's Book Reviews (.com)

"I thought PopCo would be interesting, and hoped it would be unique. I had no idea it would be both brilliant and rebellious. Outstanding and unforgettable. I only put this book down to eat and sleep. It captivated me, pure and simple. PopCo a history lesson, a modern fable, an adventure story, even a romance. And it involves buried treasure! More than anything though, it is a wonderfully, gorgeously, original piece of work. The world has never seen anyone like Alice Butler, and Scarlett Thomas has gone a long way towards crafting a one-of-a-kind piece of literature. I’m eager to see what else Thomas has in store for the world." —bookslut.com

"It’s mystery, romance, and corporate satire rolled into one — a sort of Harriet-the-Spy-meets-Douglas-Coupland with a Treasure Island twist." —Daily Candy

"Extremly ingenious. British author Thomas is without question a gifted writer, and many readers will certainly find her new work a mind-blowing experience. Strongly recommended." —Library Journal, starred review

"[An] ambitious novel, which quietly but scathingly critiques consumerist society. Thomas has always been a sharp observer and deft creator of character; it's a pleasure to see those skills employed in the context of a strong plot and stronger point of view. Thought-provoking fiction for the Digital Age." —Kirkus, starred review

"The code-breaking and -making heroine of Thomas's latest smart, engaging novel (after Going Out ) takes a critical view of the corporate marketing of cool. Thomas delivers a captivating heroine and a pointed cultural critique that will especially resonate with the No Logo crowd." —Publishers Weekly

"Richly allusive, freewheeling and, in the end, enormously satisfying narrative riffs on popular and corporate culture, maths and cryptanalysis, like a dreamland collaboration between Douglas Coupland, Naomi Klein and Douglas R Hofstadter." —Independent on Sunday

"No heroine this year was more beguiling than Alice in Scarlett Thomas's PopCo, a character so wayward that she went to bed with her homoeopathic remedies for much of the book until she felt like joining in the plot again. A mix of maths, cryptography and vegan politics, this book might just change your life." —Suzi Feay, Independent on Sunday

"Ambitious, thought-provoking, fun and partisan — with an ending that gives a tick to all the right values." —The Times (London)

"The story is compulsive, the ideas - and they're big ideas - are seamlessly integrated and necessary to the plot. Frankly, this novel is a bewitching, dizzying triumph... I have no shadow of a doubt that this book will be a "cult classic". It's more than that, though: a novel with a conscience and an attitude, uncondescendingly intelligent and emotionally affecting. It should be on the Man Booker shortlist and is strong enough to succeed even without that accolade." —Scotsman

"Form and content merge seamlessly at the denouement... How many novels can you think of that leave the reader with an intriguing puzzle to solve, plus a cake recipe, plus a crossword and a list of the first thousand prime numbers? Clever, likeable, frothy, zeitgeist-chasing - fans of Doug Coupland should find much to enjoy here." —Time Out, London

"Hugely ingenious." —The Independent

"With exuberant seriousness, Thomas restores the novel to its primary purpose: a blueprint for a revolution. It is an outright amazement." —Scotland on Sunday

"PopCo is a big, zeitgeisty novel that free-associates in the way that only cyberpunk science-fiction used to be able to do... enormous fun." —Independent

"Funny, ambitious... This is a book that targets both heads and hearts. In doing so, it highlights the fun inherent in individuality, the singular relationship between children and their grandparents and how no amount of focus groups and "think tanks" can replicate the imagination of a young mind." —Independent on Sunday

"A treasure hunt, romance, animal rights, mathematical puzzles, code-breaking and the ethics of globalization - PopCo has it all. Challenge your brain, and your conscience, and read it." —Peter Singer

"Thomas's hip, clever third novel is an act of resistance: a conspiracy theory conundrum with a conscience for the No Logo generation... PopCo, which has an angrily optimistic ending, is the revenge of the geeks." —Metro


Praise for Going Out:

"A quirky, affectionate satire of brand-saturated Britain." -The New Yorker

"Exuberant, heartfelt... Thomas nimbly reimagines her version of Oz as a meditation on the inward dimension of the Oz quest: the restless, oft-thwarted striving after true feeling in a world of strategic self-protection and blank media saturation... Baum's final moral, of course, was that your heart's desire was in your own back yard; Thomas has adapted that sage counsel to an age when back yards themselves can be terribly hard to track down." —The Washington Post

"Going Out is Baum with the heartaches and nightmares put back in. No goblins need spring from [Thomas's] woods; the ordinary facts of life in poor, exurban England are gruesome enough...From Murakami she has learned the art of conjuring up impalpable regret, and from Coupland, a kind of dry, quick humor that transforms ordinary situations-a video store during Oz Theme Week, e.g.-into catalogs of psychopathology." —The Village Voice

"GOING OUT is wonderful. It hits all the right nails with just the right amount of force." —Douglas Coupland

"Fierce and honest, Going Out is a hilarious testament to love, friendship, and the pleasures of hitting the road." —Lauren Grodstein, author of Reproduction is the Flaw of Love

"Scarlett Thomas has just sprinkled some pixie dust on adult fiction... With wry humor and fanciful insight about contemporary society, Going Out shows how, with a little effort, everyone can live, um, happily ever after." —DailyCandy

"Original, funny and full of insight. A brilliant and assured novel with themes that resonate long after the book has been put down." —Chrissie Glazebrook, author of The Mad-olescents

"Full of love, honesty, humour and sadness." —Rebecca Ray, author of Pure

“Points the way to a new future for English fiction. Fans of Coupland and Murakami: here is your new favourite author.” —Matt Thorne