The National Book Award for Fiction has announced its 2015 long list: 10 novels or short story collections eligible for the shiniest American literary honor this side of the Pulitzer. The ballot is beautiful to behold. Not only does it commend talented scribblers of color—Angela Flournoy! T. Geronimo Johnson! Hanya Yanagihara!—and female scribblers—Lauren Groff! Nell Zink! Edith Pearlman!—but every book on here intrinsically merits celebration. (Take that, chatterers who believe that diversity and excellence must work at cross-purposes.)

Revelatory writing can inspire revelatory reviews. (Here, for instance, is Laura Miller fabulously explicating the twisty satisfactions of Lauren Groff.) But it also generates many, many modifiers, as critics fall all over themselves trying to convey their delight in the most rapturous language possible. Basically, the blurbs on National Book Award nominees' Amazon pages are an adjective bonanza. Here are the most extravagant, evocative, confusing, nice, annoying, or funny descriptors applied to each title on the 2015 long list. 

Jesse Ball, A Cure for Suicide

beguiling 

elegant, spellbinding

subtle and breathtaking

magnetic, suspenseful, occasionally heart-rending

full, satiating

richly adorned with sensuous scenes

Karen E. Bender, Refund

fine, crisp

crackling with energy and wit

vivid, believable

poignant, absorbing

superb

both lean and expansive

absolutely masterful

Bill Clegg, Did You Ever Have a Family

brilliantly constructed

propulsive but tightly crafted

polished, quietly captivating

delicately lyrical and emotionally direct

ineffably sad and deeply inspiring

mesmerizing

wondrous

deeply optimistic…brutally direct

restrained, exquisite, and unexpectedly tender

Angela Flournoy, The Turner House

epic, ambitious, and strikingly executed

cracklingly alive

utterly unsentimental

spare, headstrong

utterly moving and tough as nails

commanding and unputdownable

charming and funny while being whip-smart and profound

Lauren Groff, Fates and Furies

sumptuous

red-hot

surprising, wild, with pockets of calm that build anticipation for the next squall

audacious and gorgeous

deliciously voyeuristic but also wise on the simultaneous comforts and indignities of romantic partnership

Complex, sexy and achingly beautiful

almost-wizardly

lithe and poetic, unrolling like a glimmering carpet to the gray and uncertain territory of her characters’ inner conflicts

Adam Johnson, Fortune Smiles

weird, indelible

audacious

perceptive and brave

long, fearless

rigorously limber

wise, poignant and important

superb ... explosive

alive and limitless

slightly surreal

sinewy

T. Geronimo Johnson, Welcome to Braggsville

oh-my-God-listen-up

even tragic, in the most classic meaning of the word

amusing…unpredictable

madcap, satirical

profane

uncanny

deeply pleasurable

deeply disturbing

ghastly

thoroughgoing and extreme

orgiastic

Edith Pearlman, Honeydew

vinegary

acidic

droll

set down like a light footprint that nevertheless fixes itself in one's memory as though pressed in wet cement

tender and distant

like entering the jet stream of some stranger's life

wise, yes, but also unfailingly generous

refreshingly loose

intricately imagined

warmly imagined 

Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life

surprisingly subversive

elemental, irreducible, dark, and disturbing

frequently stomach-churning

shrewd

wondrous

harrowing

stunning

audacious

audacious

audacious

audacious

Nell Zink, Mislaid

giddy, lunatic, perverse, and irresistible

penetrating and agile

lucid

sly, low-affect

as absurd and hilarious as it is tragic and seeing

hilarious and genius

refreshingly eccentric

wickedly humorous

beautifully braided into understated prose

outlandish

zany

zany-brainy