Bookforum: “Archly contemporary”

[E]motionally raw but ultimately elegant. . . . Hughes brings the reader so close to each member of the Devlin family that when the faces come into view, we know the characters so well that their physical attributes seem beside the point.
— Lisa Locascio, Bookforum

Pop Matters: A Crash Course in 20 Stories

“In ‘Pelican Song’, Mary-Beth Hughes proves that it’s possible to write well about domestic violence. Her story is smart, well-rounded, and avoids sentimentality at every turn.”
— Erin Lyndal Martin, "A Crash Course in 20 Stories: The Paris Review's 'Object Lessons'"

From a review of a collection of short stories that includes "Pelican Song,"  from Double Happiness