Reviews with content warning for Pregnancy - Sorrow and Bliss

Reviews tagging 'Pregnancy'

Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason

103 reviews

savvylit's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.0

The best aspect of Sorrow and Bliss is the way that Mason portrays the personal significance of receiving an accurate mental health diagnosis. Martha, the main character, spends the majority of this novel struggling with her mental illness. She has deep depressive episodes. She tries multiple medications. The relief at finally knowing her (unnamed to readers) diagnosis was both palpable and powerful.

A difficult thing about this novel is that Martha uses her mental health struggles as an excuse to be genuinely rude and cruel to her loved ones. Especially her husband. Though eventually she realizes she's actually an asshole outside of her diagnosis, it was excruciating to experience Martha being needlessly mean-spirited.

Overall, I liked Sorrow and Bliss and following Martha's journey. The whole novel felt really realistic, even (and especially) in its most unlikeable moments.

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crazytourists_books's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I can't believe I ended up liking this book.
I did struggle at first, with the narration style, I found it kind of juvenile and obnoxious, and that feeling lasted for quite a while; for about one-third of the book. Every few pages I was contemplating about stopping reading. And then it kind of fell into place and the narration made sense, and I started to be submerged in the story. Up until the diagnosis paragraph where the actual diagnosis is withheld and dashes are put in ita name. I don't get it. It's the kind of thing that perpetuates the shame and stigma, not naming what we fear. The specifics weren't needed; if the structure of the story was a bit different, I think the author could get away with all this mess. And then comes the end, which I quite liked, and the characters are still in pain but have grown, and it's not overly happy, which is a good thing. It is rather real.
So, an experience with its ups and downs, but on the positive side in the end.

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novi's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I've read this book for so long idk how to talk about it. I spent 6 months reading it lmao. Okay. This is a character driven book and the character has a mental illness. It wasn't mentioned what, but in the back of the book it said that it was a fictional illness. I don't really know a lot about mental illness but the symptoms are similar to at least depression. So. We're with this character all the time. And it was hard sometimes bc she can be very annoying at times. I stopped reading in the beginning bc of how ungrateful she was of her husband. As far as we know he did nothing wrong (and he really did!). But i really like the writing style and i think i'm going to like what this book is trying to offer. I LOVE stream of consciousness writing.

Reading this kinda reminds me of: "Really Good, Actually" by Monica Heisey (bc of the stream of consciousness and funny writing, and bc it's a journey of a woman towards having a breakdown. But "Sorrow and Bliss" was more rollercoaster-y mentally and has a more sombre tone to it), and the movie "About Time" (bc of this big british family characters that are very present in the book and they're all unique although not as functional as the movie).

People always talk about the sisterhood in this book and yes. I agree. It's so heartwarming in a non-cheesy way, bc these sisters refused anything cringy lol so don't worry. But it was so warm and made me cry.

I cried at the end of this book. It was a touched-cry. Not a sad-cry. My worry when starting this book was it's gonna be depressing. But for me personally, it's not. Like I said there are times where the main character was so so unbelievably annoying, but it was then balanced with a loooot of warmth and hug from other characters and the main character herself. And the humor. I love the humor.

I still don't know if i'm gonna give it 4 or 4.5 stars though. idk why

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maggienistler's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

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jupiter5's review

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challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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rambling_reading's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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amaya_jam's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad tense 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

3.25

This book was 90% sorrow and a scant 10% bliss. the last 30 pages or so really saved it. it took me weeks to read this. i really wanted to love it but i had to drag my way through most of it. i think my lack of depression made me have a much harder time sympathizing with Martha.

Despite this, I found myself highlighting a dozen or so passages and could see myself recommending this to a couple people. maybe i’ll like the book more as i mull over it in my mind.

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