"Sumptuous, melancholic portraits of characters overwhelmed. . . . Taylor has a talent for taking the dull hum of quotidian life and converting it into lyrics. . . . These intimacies, often cozy, pair splendidly with the uglier, more brutal elements to establish the book's focus: the feral that lurks under the veneer. . . . A perfect companion piece for our nervous era." - John Paul Brammer, New York Times Book Review
"Taylor is an important literary talent, not least for his ability to render the familiar into the shockingly unfamiliar. Full of beauty and harshness, the complex and startling stories of Filthy Animals will stick with readers long after the pages are read." - USA Today
"Lumious. . . . tap[s] into the peculiar, primal struggle of becoming who you are, and all the stories you have to tell yourself to get there." - Entertainment Weekly
"Explore[s] love, longing, and erotic desire between an interconnected group of creatives in the Midwest with tenderness and a gentle touch of dry humor . . . Fully delivering on the promise of Real Life, Filthy Animals firmly establishes Taylor as a brilliantly inventive storyteller, and one whose beautifully drawn characters have that rare ability to really make you care." - Vogue
"Stunning. . . . Each story has a cinematic quality that is wholly earned. . . . Emotionally rich but also physically grounded. . . . Filthy Animals allows its characters to crawl out into the open and learn to love." - Los Angeles Times
"[These] stories feel almost like slices of life, but the everyday is heightened by the intensity of the characters' longing, desire, anger and, above all else, passion. . . . Taylor's characters are beautiful messes, with their flaws, uncertainty, and mistakes making them all the more intriguing and real." - Associated Press
"A probing short story collection that grapples with societal expectations and transgressions . . . a luminous exploration of identity, mental health, and sexuality." - BuzzFeed
"Impressive . . . The cloistered world of student life offers Taylor the perfect canvas for the emotionally charged interplay between an insular cast. Most significantly though, these stories provide further evidence that intimacy is Taylor's great subject." - Financial Times
"Filthy Animals touches on the soft underbelly of human existence, showing the animalistic qualities we all share. How we all struggle to make meaningful connections, have a sense of dignity and deal with pain." - Seattle Times
"Gorgeous." - Barrie Hardymon, NPR
"Resonant and poignant. . . . Taylor writes about relationships like a modern E. M. Forster, poking and prodding at the places where the connection is thinnest, and observing what happens when people madly attempt to shore it up." - Vulture
"Taylor fixes his gaze on [his characters'] moments of peril, probing the tension between vulnerability and deception, sexual desire and violence, with an elegant precision teetering on the gothic." - GQ
"With a stark and unwavering eye and a deep respect for his subjects, Taylor builds instantly recognizable tales of longing and desire." - Elle
"Incisive and keenly observed, these stories confirm that Taylor is one of our finest chroniclers of intimacy and loneliness." - Esquire
