The Mail on Sunday calls The White King a “coming of age tale with a difference”. The review concludes:
“Glimpsed as it is imperfectly, through the eyes of a child, Dragoman’s evocation of a totalitarian regime is all the more unsettling.”

The book was also reviewd in the Metro. Here is a quote:

“Dragomán is sparing with explanatory detail – Djata’s claustrophobic, mono perspective is all we have – but as his story builds, it takes on a momentum that is irresistible, and in which the unspoken story at the heart of the book comes into focus with the force of an all too real nightmare.”