Not my usual read but fabulous writing and compelling. Dark, witty, funny and incredibly sad in places. A great debut.

This rare book has rocketed into my top five of the year. It came out of nowhere with its dark and true humour, it’s honest depiction of a struggled life, and it’s compelling heroine Martha. I loved Martha and her sister Ingrid with their disastrous mother and her soft and caring father., trying to survive their domestic life, and then later Martha’s descent into fluctuating mental illness.
By not revealing the true nature of Martha’s illness or diagnosis, we literally live her pain, her loneliness and her struggle.
I will be re-reading this often. Martha, Ingrid, Winsome, Nicholas, and Patrick feel like old familiar friends, even though I devoured this book in two days.
Thank you so much #NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to read this ahead of publication in exchange for an honest review

I absolutely loved it.

Books, unlike music, rarely make me cry but Sorrow and Bliss did. For me the sign of a most moving and an excellent read. The portrayal of mental ill-health and its effect on both the sufferer and those around her, who love and care for her is second to none.

The relationship between Martha and Patrick who has loved her since they first met as teenagers is beautifully and sensitively portrayed but for me, it is the history of generational depression suffered by Martha, her alcoholic mother and grandmother before her, that affected me most.

Meg Mason's writing is sublime and I look forward to reading more of her work. Highly recommended. Many thanks to NetGalley and Orion for the opportunity to read and review Sorrow and Bliss.

Everyone tells Martha Friel she is clever and beautiful, a brilliant writer who has been loved every day of her adult life by one man, her husband Patrick. A gift, her mother once said, not everybody gets. So why is everything broken? Why is Martha - on the edge of 40 - friendless, practically jobless and so often sad? And why did Patrick decide to leave? Maybe she is just too sensitive, someone who finds it harder to be alive than most people. Or maybe - as she has long believed - there is something wrong with her. Something that broke when a little bomb went off in her brain, at 17, and left her changed in a way that no doctor or therapist has ever been able to explain.

This is a book I will be pressing on people for many reasons. First and foremost, a story that makes me laugh and cry in equal measure will always top my list. The humour is dark and wry, Overall, a very good, and lasting read that continues on in your mind once finished.

This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

Wow!!! I loved this book!
It tells the story of Martha and Patrick and how their relationship blossomed and then wilted. Martha has some difficulties with her mental health and the impact that has on their relationship is told with beauty and humility.
I absolutely adored it!

Struggling to find adequate words to describe how incredible this book is. Sublime, achingly brilliant writing. Without question one of my books of the year (even with seven months to go)

Meg Mason's debut novel is so beautifully and insightfully written that I just wanted to savour every word. The sorrow may be in the depiction of Martha's mental health issues but the bliss comes through in the loving portrayal of her relationships and the humour and quick wittedness on every page. This book feels so true and honest. I loved it and would highly recommend.
4.5 stars
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital ARC.

The characters in this book feel so real. one can understand them, laugh or cry with them. It is thought provoking and one that even after finishing can make you think about it.

A funny but moving novel which tackles the subject of long term mental illness. When her husband laves her can Martha turn her life around and come to terms with her illness to find happiness? Different and absorbing.

‘Meg Mason’s ‘Sorrow and Bliss’ has been likened to ‘Fleabag’ by some reviewers. Certainly, the incredibly close yet exasperated connection between the protagonist Martha Friel and her sister Ingrid is similar. However, Nancy Mitford’s ‘Love in a Cold Climate’ comes to mind as another comparison when thinking about Martha’s eccentric parents, her other adult relations, and their social milieu.
This is a story about a 40-year-old woman with an undiagnosed mental illness. She takes us back and forth from childhood as she struggles to cope with her every day adult life. Martha has clearly always seen and reacted to the world in a slightly different way and Meg Mason is adept at presenting this convincingly through both moments of humour and despondency. Martha is blessed with an adoring, understanding, infinitely patient husband, Patrick, but even he cannot withstand months of hatred after she receives a diagnosis that makes sense.
Whilst reviewers have, understandably, praised the author’s ability to balance the ‘sorrow’ and the ‘bliss’ of a life lived slightly off-kilter, Mason leaves us in no doubt that it is not just tough for the afflicted but also demanding for those who care for her, even though they live as ‘privileged’ members of society. She shows us just how differently people react to mental illness and how this, in turn, causes further problems: her mother cannot bear to face the truth; her father is extraordinarily passive; her sister is relied on to pick up the pieces; her husband is a metaphorical and sometimes literal punchbag. And yet, we understand why they do what they do and hope for a world in which Martha’s vulnerability and fragility is valued as much as her warmth, honesty and wit.
My thanks to NetGalley and Orion Publishing Group W&N for a copy of this novel in exchange for a fair review.

I received an advanced reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review

How could a book be so honest yet funny yet gut wrenching at the same time? An amazing writerly feat – I devoured it while feeling all kinds of feelings while also ugly laughing on the train. I did not want to separate from this protagonist after the last page. A gem.

This was a gripping read of family, marriage and mental health. At times hilarious, at others distressing, and very insightful about the one sided nature of all relationships. Taking place in West London and Oxford, I enjoyed plotting Martha’s journeys in my mind, and was gripped to find out the fates of Martha, Patrick and Ingrid. Recommended.

I have visceral response to this book. I feel like the author wrote the most incredible book. It was funny and tragic and absolutely perfect. I adored it. I now need it to already come out in some sort of special hardback edition, it is a classic.

More sorrow than bliss in my opinion, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. This novel is probably the best look at women’s mental health that I’ve read and as someone who has battled depressive illness for much of her life it is nice to see the subject handled so well and in such realism. Martha is an engaging character and even when she is being thoroughly unpleasant you can still root for her. The relationships between her family members both immediate and extended are beautiful and so warmly written. I could see, feel, smell and see the various houses especially her father’s study which felt immediately safe and warm.
I wasn’t quite so keen on the novels portrayal of marriage and the constant refrain from within each of the married couples that it was a deal made at the alter, not to be divided unless there was a ‘real’ reason. Frankly I think an alcoholic wife who makes sculptures in the back garden would be a ‘real’ reason in my book but perhaps Martha’s father is a better man than I. I think Martha brought up some valid criticisms of Patrick yet her mother and sister seemed happy to over look these.
For me the real treat in this book is it’s humour. I highlighted so many paragraphs in my Kindle because they were so funny and I wanted to share them with my daughter and friends.
My personal favourite is that Martha’s sister Ingrid and her husband “moved to a village which collectively pretends Swindon isn’t right there” perfect!

A beautiful, sensitive and even, on occasion funny look at the impact of her mental health issues on Martha. She is a likeable and relatable woman who struggles to understand why her life is so difficult. The large cast of characters are all so well written, and I loved how the author showed insights into all of their worlds, while concentrating on Martha.
I want to give a shout out to the portrayal of the sister relationships, both Martha and Ingrid’s and her Mother and aunt’s - absolutely spot on.
Don’t expect this to be a laugh a minute, it isn’t but the use of humour when it comes is perfectly timed and intelligent.
I wasn’t entirely sure about requesting this book to read and review on @Netgalley, but I am so glad that I did. It is going to stay with me and I intend to recommend it to the world.

This book IS sorrow and bliss. It’s pathos and wit and humanity and joy and so much more. The writing is beautiful. Not a word is wasted or ill-chosen. The descriptions of mental illness are hard-hitting and vivid, and I the fact that the diagnosis is never revealed highlights the universality of mental struggles and the assumptions that arise from labels. A stunning book.

Some books are so good you count down the hours until you can go back to them and Meg Mason's Sorrow and Bliss is one of them. This is a novel about a woman's life with mental illness and how this impacts upon her relationships with her family and her own hopes and desires. Even though this is told in first-person, in a raw and sometimes devastating way, Martha's story doesn't feel bleak or depressing in itself and at times it's actually scattered with humour. I think the reason this novel is so successful is that her experience feels authentic. It doesn't make her illness cartoonish or cliche and the characters who colour her life are well-rounded and entertaining that spending time with Martha doesn't feel claustrophobic or draining. We learn very early on that her and Patrick's marriage is doomed but the structure of the book allows us to watch that relationship grow so that by the end of their relationship we're invested and emotionally frustrated to follow how their love has shattered. This novel has incredible characterisation and is one I'll be recommending to people who love books that explore one character, or one family, with depth and authenticity.

Thank you to NetGalley and W&N for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Sensational! This is now one of my favourite books. It’s a fraught and moving novel about a woman with an improperly diagnosed mental illness, the complexities of her suffering, and the effects on her family and partner. The characters are so clever and well constructed, and I absolutely loved that this book was filled with romantic tropes (and it’s set in London, with a lot of references to Shepherd’s Bush, where I first lived when I moved there). 'Sorrow' and 'Bliss’ perfectly describes how I felt throughout the book, it was a rollercoaster of emotions. I particularly enjoyed the part when Patrick and Martha were courting each other, and Ingrid’s witty comments.

This was not at all what I expected when I read the blurb. I was expecting to read a book about a woman having martial issues and a possible mid-life crisis but it's so much more than that.

Sorrow and Bliss is a story about whip smart and sharp tongued Martha, dealing with her mental health and the impact it's had on her relationships but it is surprisingly funny, moving and heart-breaking - and sometimes all three on the same page.

I loved the story but what gripped me was Meg Mason's writing. The short and sharp paragraphs felt like standalone short stories, each telling you about a character, place in time or event in a way that was pitch perfect. There were paragraphs which were so funny I was laughing out loud and just a few sentences later I was a sobbing mess.

I finished it a few weeks ago and wanted to sit with it before writing a review but I thoroughly enjoyed it and can honestly say this is the best book I've read in a very long time. I can't stop thinking about it and wish I could read it all over again and I'm totally envious of anyone who has yet to read it.

1.5 rounded up

There was way more sorrow than bliss in this novel for my liking. I'd venture that readers who enjoyed Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine would find something to enjoy here, as Mason employs a similar writing style to tell Martha's story, but both books rubbed me up the wrong way in their portrayal of mental illness and the use of humour in the storytelling - perhaps in both instances it's a brand of humour that just doesn't work for me or maybe it's the combination of the two that just doesn't work for my reading sensibilities. Sorrow and Bliss read as much less literary than I was expecting, too, which was disappointing. Maybe this would make a good book club read, but suffice to say it wasn't for me.