We can read this book several ways. Firstly, it is a Gothic novel but, secondly, it is a Gothic novel written by a surrealist, so all sorts of mysterious, magical and unreal events take place. Thirdly, it is clearly intended, at least in part, to be a spoof of the traditional Gothic novel. Indeed, if you do not take it too seriously, you will find it great fun to read, not least because whenever our hero or heroine are in trouble, you know they will be rescued by the other or by some mysterious force. In addition. a whole host of improbable events take place.

— The Modern Novel

...it is certainly the case that the ‘wonders’ element of the novel is its most immediately appealing feature. Indeed, were I attempting to convince someone to read the book I would, without question, mention the vampire polecat; the plot to steal a boy’s heart and transplant it into another; the hanging, the accusations of witchery, the despairing crowing of a cock, the burial ground, the ghost. In relation to this, Nezval himself wrote in his foreword that his work is ‘bordering on the ridiculous’, and there is, as far as I am concerned, no greater selling point than that.

— Books, Yo

The book is a tour de force in that Nezval adopts the genre of the pulp novel for his own arch purposes. Have literary historians noticed that it is a precursor of some of our own aesthetic concerns, in other words a sort of pre-postmodern fantasy?

— John Taylor, The Antioch Review

Gothic sleazefest, menstrual fantasy, dime-store pulp fiction—Valerie and Her Week of Wonders is a collage of a collage of a collage, a dream of a dream, an important early-century surrealist novel only now translated from its native Czech into English by the able David Short.

— New York Press

The work is a fantastic romp through a field of surreal visions and juxtaposed imagery. ... David Short's translation maintains an excellent rhythm throughout the novel.

— Slavic and East European Journal

Valerie and Her Week of Wonders reclaims the irrational from its exiled state through the use of hybrid form and surreal content. The text enables us to dream about what it might be like to be more than our fears, limitations, and distractions by calling into question our personal limits. David Short's beautiful translation reminds us that dealing with meaning in the contemporary world is a very funny and always disturbing adventure — one that may help us live more bravely if we are willing to dance with the unfamiliar.

—Selah Saterstrom, American Book Review

Somewhere between the existential fables of Franz Kafka and the macabre animations of Jan Švankmajer lies Vítězslav Nezval. Valerie and Her Week of Wonders reminded me of a hyperactive Hammer Horror film as directed by Luis Buñuel.

— The Absinthe Literary Review

A real curiosity: a surrealist novel masquerading as a gothic thriller ... a rare book that exists in its own indefinable category. ... This makes for a pulpy tale that reads like something else entirely; what that something is I'm not entirely sure, but it's rich, thoughtful and profoundly strange.

— Fright Site