The characters are as flat as the art. With nine women telling stories and under 150 pages, there’s not much room for development beyond what they report about themselves.

...at no point does Marjane Satrapi feel compelled to spell out why she chose to turn this graphic gossipfest into a graphic novella - or how she wants us to respond to it. It speaks for itself and, to a large degree, to itself, and therein lies its subversive charm. But it is at the same time a daring and brilliantly calculated illumination of a secret space.