Critics have generally been favorable to Robert Olen Butler's works throughout his career. When Tabloid Dreams was published, many critical responses focused on the book's general premise, which was to present twelve stories based on lurid-sounding titles that might have been actual headlines in some of the more sensationalistic supermarket tabloids. Bonnie Smothers, writing a review in Booklist, found that Butler "fairly giggles throughout this collection over the fun he's having." Smothers found the stories to be "fabulously grotesque" and praised Butler for "inventiveness bordering on excess." In America, Barbara C. Ewell noted her appreciation of Butler's narrative device and also found the stories to be meaningful on their own: "But what makes these tales more than hilarious devices is how much truth Butler makes the incredible captions reveal about being human, and how well they expose the strangeness of our own daily life." She ends...