“[An] energetic and deeply satisfying debut novel…Boryga is having fun, and he’s inviting us to join in. But let’s be clear: Though Boryga is playing, he’s not playing around…His debut signals the arrival of a writer courageous enough to dive into the difficult head-on. A thrilling work.” — Mateo Askaripour, New York Times Book Review
“A pointed satire of the culture of victimhood… Boryga’s experiences as a journalist making a name for himself just as society was grappling with diversity inform this razor-sharp satire of the ways race and class can be exploited.” — Washington Post
“Victim pushes the bounds of what true diversity looks like.” — USA Today
“This scathing satire shows the lengths one is willing to go to earn recognition in the attention economy.” — TIME
“A sharp and biting satire about the truths and lies we can hide behind in the digital age. The voice of the narration is wickedly perfect and propels this novel with ease. Boryga understands tone, pace, and voice better than most.” — Debutiful
“Victim is one of those rare outliers that manages to engage with the cliched polemic without getting trapped into it… A buoyant read… [Boryga’s] raw, vivid, and affectionate depiction of city life is refreshingly unpretentious and down-to-earth… his novel is more an examination of the human condition than a polemic, giving ample space to grey areas, and sincerely exploring profound and universal questions about morality and responsibility, fate and free will, social structures and the role we play in them as individuals.” — The Critic Magazine
“Come for the diversity-media-bashing, stay for the actual diversity… Boryga’s novel is quick-paced and tightly crafted, a hybrid that’s both a fun-to-read entry in the how-to-make-it-in-Gotham genre and a serious engagement with cultural theory.” — Compact Magazine
“[A] nonstop caricature of racial discourse. . . We laugh, until Boryga catches us red-handed in our own laughably paltry attempts at racial justice. . . And in case we look away, Boryga gazes at us directly in quiet, lucid beats. . . [Victim] critically embod[ies] the cannibalistic state of the identity narrative. . . The very conceit of Victim may be [the] pendulum-like trap between the political and personal: and how difficult it is for marginalized people to value one without sacrificing – or being denounced by – the other. With such unresolvable loops and ironies, Victim shrewdly reflects our era of superficial diversity discourse and how we cannibalize minoritized stories.” — Harvard Advocate
“The satire in this novel comes in sharp and merciless, but the friendship at the story’s center steals the show, rounding out all the complexities and contradictions of two young men on different sides of the truth. Boryga is a keen observer of culture and a storyteller with style to spare.” — CrimeReads
“A cutting satire along the lines of Black Buck and Yellowface. . . Funny and heart-squeezing.” — BookRiot
“In the vein of satires such as Percival Everett’s glorious Erasure, Paul Beatty’s The Sellout, and Mithu Sanyal’s Identitti. . . Superbly written, this is a darkly funny, searing exposé of the contemporary appetite for trauma narratives and the ill-informed responses of many institutions to issues of racial justice.” — Booklist
“Part blistering satire, part earnest bildungsroman [in this] canny debut. . . Boryga plays his dynamic central duo against each other to striking effect. This foray into the uses and misuses of victimhood bears fruit.” — Publishers Weekly
“Victim highlights the hazards and moral dilemma of telling a truth that is not your own. . . Boryga’s character development is exceptional. He draws the reader into Javi’s psyche, experiencing his constant rationalizations, the fear of being caught, and the occasional pangs of guilt. The supporting characters are complex and nuanced. . . Victim is a compelling work with a flawed protagonist, a realistic storyline, and strong dramatic tension. Victim raises important questions about the choices we make and the price we pay for success. It shows us how we are all a combination of our authentic selves, the misimpressions of others, and, sometimes, the occasional fabrications we invent for the sake of being valued.” — Southern Review of Books
