In an article published on December 8 in the pages of The Los Angeles Times, titled “The 15 Best Books of 2025,” literary critic Carolyn Kellogg joined her colleagues Bethanne Patrick and Mark Athitakis to compile this selection. Among the chosen works is Cécé, the translation of Les Villages de Dieu by Aidan Rooney. The novel by the Haitian writer is described as “a striking portrait of a young Haitian woman trapped by poverty, digital influence, and gang violence,” a powerful work on contemporary Haitian reality and influencer culture.

On December 13, The Wall Street Journal also praised the book in an article entitled “Fiction: The Year Novelists Reclaimed the Narrative,” written by Sam Sacks. The critic believes that “Emmelie Prophète’s brief and deft Cécé (Archipelago, 224 pages) captures the double identities of its heroine: a young woman struggling to survive gang violence in Haiti and a radiant social media personality followed by tens of thousands of subscribers.” Through this work and those analyzed in the article, Sam Sacks reminds readers that strong storytelling does not need to leave the terrain of realism.