Reviews with content warning for Violence - Sorrow and Bliss

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason

11 reviews

hannahbailey's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

<b>TW: mental illness, toxic relationships, domestic abuse, suicidal thoughts, miscarriage, alcoholism, emotional abuse, grief </b>

Absolutely sped through this. Had I owned a copy on kindle, I would be sharing probably hundreds of highlights right now.

Written so effortlessly, with a style of prose that is just a pleasure to read despite the heavy themes. Actually, it's probably this writing style that makes the themes so digestible. Really enjoyed the lack of 'perfect' characters and the unreliable narration. Found the narrative we tell ourselves about how we're perceived by others when suffering with mental illness to be very relatable. This portrayal of mental illness, teen-to-adulthood and managing relationships is not only relatable but quite soothing to see published into the mainstream. The narrative voice was very compelling as was the jumping to different parts of the timeline.

Took me 3 days to finish which is a record this year as everything else I pick up in 2024 has taken me much longer to get through!

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liesbethvv's review against another edition

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emotional funny sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

This book really grew on me. I felt a bit disconnected from the main character Martha from the beginning, as she struggles through her relationships, romantically and within her family and friends but the second half of the book just blew me away. How well constructed, how painful to see the unreliable narrator fall into despair and with a few plot twist thrown in the different topics just slot together so well.
I must say this is definitely not a lighthearted or laugh-out-loud funny book to me, but the banter between Martha and her sister Ingrid is so, so drily funny it made me smile a lot.
I would definitely recommend this read, albeit a hard one, if only to augment one’s empathy towards the others, you never know what a person is dealing with.

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arnold_shelby's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book was extremely moving and a beautiful (painful) portrayal of a mental illness. Although you're not told what diagnosis the protagonist, Martha, has, you can infer based on some of her symptoms and the way she talks about her experience. For anyone who has been through the experience of being diagnosed with a stigmatized illness, or who has struggled in their efforts to "just be better" and the shame that is so wrapped up in their not being normal/ feeling like they're just doing this human thing wrong.. this book was a compassionate, albeit painful exploration.

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