This was a great book. The whole time I was thinking, Jesus, Abi cannot catch a break! It goes to show how impactful social determinants of health really are. Abi was set up for failure...her sister died, her dad died, and she was barely parented and raised by her mother who was as good as dead. This all contributed to really poor decision making and falling for to the world's shittiest boyfriend (not kidding) and getting pregnant accidentally. Because of this, Abi makes the decision to move from England to Australia to be closer to him. After hitting it off, Abi falls pregnant, decides to relocate to Sydney to start a family where Jude would go to school and provide for her and the baby. Nothing could prepare Abi for the loneliness of relocating to a place where she only knows one person. She tries to integrate but it is hard, that is until she meets her next door neighbor Phil. Phil is a widower and all her children lives outside of Sydney. Both women cling to each other… until secrets come to light. Abi has landed in Sydney with her three-week old son in tow and no idea what the future holds. Behind her in London is all that’s left of her family: her self-destructive mother and the depressing former council flat they shared. Her baby’s father, Stu – an Aussie architecture student who swept into her life during his few months as an exchange student – is woefully unprepared for fatherhood. His officious mother Elaine is terrifyingly judgemental. And although Stu’s father, Roger, is shaping up to be a quiet ally, it’s not until Abi meets the well-to-do, charming and high-handed Phyllida that things improve. As Phil and Abi grow closer, it seems like the older woman is the mother figure Abi longs for. The loneliness, isolation and grief throughout is heartbreaking but the moments of belonging and healing make up for this. The difference between those characters who have family vs those who desire family creates a real contrast which also tugs on the heart strings quite a bit.

At its core, this book transcends class by exposing the often-times lonely, under sung role of mothers. Mason’s book, is, all told, a love letter to motherhood in all its complexity. An impressive debut novel that finds the biggest drama in the smallest of actions. I was going to say, I’m excited for mason to write something that is not centred around motherhood, but actually this book is far more about friendship, the meaning of family, & filling the yawning gap your parents leave when you are a young adult (we love an inter-generational friendship). The beauty of Phil and Abi’s relationship felt so real, a mother figure without all the of expectation, past let downs, the intrusion of other family dynamics. Also covers loneliness and the liminal space between casual acquaintances and friends, imbued with longing, (which is so accurately portrayed, something I haven’t seen represented in text before - even though the same in romantic situations is the subject matter of every rom com ever). Meg Mason began her career at the Financial Times and The Times of London. Her work has since appeared in The Sunday Times, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Sunday Telegraph. She has written humour for The New Yorker and Sunday STYLE, was a GQ columnist for five years and a regular contributor to Vogue, marie claire, and ELLE. You know that book that only comes along every so often, that seems to unite everyone who has read it in a sort of delirious fervour? SORROW AND BLISS is that book. It’s utterly compelling and darkly funny: the book you have to read this summer.” EVENING STANDARD Thank you to Netgalley and HaperCollins Australia for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.It is an incredibly funny novel, and one that’s enlivened, often, by a madcap energy. Yet it still manages to be sensitive and heartfelt, and to offer a nuanced portrayal of what it means to try to make amends and change, even when that involves ‘start[ing] again from nothing.’” THE GUARDIAN AUSTRALIA SORROW AND BLISS is a book you’ll want to devour in one sitting. Meg Mason has written an adult coming-of-age novel, told with force, breathlessness and a confessional style that makes you feel as if you’re sharing intimacies with a close friend. Mason’s writing has been compared to Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s for good reason. Martha has a Fleabag-ian wit and obsessive self-reflection, the humour sitting alongside the despair.” THE SATURDAY PAPER This is a story that will settle in the hearts and guts of anyone whose life has been touched by the devastation of not knowing exactly what is wrong, but hoping against hope that there is some way to fix it.” THE SPINOFF, NZ

In Meg Mason’s almost eerily accomplished SORROW AND BLISS, the narrator Martha has suffered from mental illness since her teens. Yet, without ever playing down her pain, the result is often disconcertingly funny.” THE SPECTATOR Mason's bleakly comic [US] debut examines with pitiless clarity the impact of the narrator's mental illness on her closest relationships…Mason brings the reader into a deep understanding of Martha's experience without either condescending to her or letting her off too easily. While we as readers have the luxury of finding her observations funnier than she does, we're not so far distanced from her that we can't appreciate both her strengths and her weaknesses. An astute depiction of life on the psychic edge.” KIRKUS SORROW AND BLISS is a brilliantly faceted and extremely funny book about depression that engulfed me in the way I'm always hoping to be to be engulfed by novels. While I was reading it, I was making a list of all the people I wanted to send it to, until I realised that I wanted to send it to everyone I know." ANN PATCHETT The story is told primarily in short, sharp chapters with names! (I love chapters that have names – these are titled from a quote from a character each time and can be quite funny). It’s definitely worth persevering through the early stages as the second half is wonderfully complex and dramatic with a pinch of fun. It’s interesting, I felt at half way the tone of the book changed and became a lot more serious. Exploring ideas of family, expectations and friendships, I loved how Abi grew in this book but my heart did ache for her at times, as she always tried to do her best for herself and Jude.Meg Mason writes about the slow bleed of life-long depression with candour, humour and stark precision. SORROW AND BLISS is about what happens when your illness pushes everyone away - leaving you with only the sorest parts of yourself for company. It will, as the title suggests, shatter your heart, before mending it with infinite love. I've never read anything like it and will be pressing it into the hands of every reader I know.” PANDORA SYKES There was a lot I liked about this book (although it didn’t compare to her spectacular follow-up, Sorrow and Bliss, which is in a whole different league). What do you do, when you find the perfect family, and it's not yours? A charming, funny and irresistible novel about families, friendship and tiny little white lies.