“Picking at pop music’s rotting corpse. Jenny Hval reminds us of the intrinsic value of art in her incisive book Stage Human … This essay is a work of art in itself, as Hval not only discusses the joys and problems of her own career, but also uses the possibilities of language to view herself as a stage persona from the outside. And from within … Many would do well to follow Jenny Hval’s example and try to breathe some life into the pop corpse.”
Audun Vinger, Dagens Næringsliv

“Jenny Hval is fighting for us all to become more physically present in the age of artificial intelligence. In Stage Human, we get the behind-the-scenes story … The essays revolve around the personal, the artistic, what it means to be a stage performer – and what it’s like to release music in a capitalist system dominated by large tech companies. Hval adds a [..] physical, feminine perspective [..] linked to a theatrical tradition, and adds a good dose of blood, sweat and tears.”
Knut Hoem, NRK

“The most vivid thing you will read this year. Hval excels both in the give-the-middle-finger-to-the-novel genre and in more genre-bound, reference-rich essay writing … Her language constantly approaches the air, fluids and masses that weave bodies together … Hval writes a thick, pulsating, vibrating space … In a gripping way, she weaves dirt, food, tones, her mother’s cigarettes and her own coeliac diagnosis into the text … The stage performer fully demonstrates how the delight in the workings of the body can result in playful, living literary art, even when the theme of the text is disillusionment.”
Anna Serafima Svendsen Kvam, Morgenbladet

“Perfume, theory and a chain-smoking mother. Everything contributes to making Jenny Hval’s essays as unique as they are cross-media … The author moves with ease from the disco on the Danish ferry to avant-garde circles, from a youth spent in the school band to a celebrity life with a mysterious, threatening woman on her heels.”
Kåre Bulie, Klassekampen