Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - Sorrow and Bliss

Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason

62 reviews

epellicci's review against another edition

challenging sad medium-paced

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

3.0

Mixed feelings with this one. One the one hand, Sorrow and Bliss is an amazingly visceral portrayal of mental health, and a points (particularly towards the end) did make me feel connected to the main character, Martha, and emotional. On the other, Martha spends most of the book intensely unlikable, and Meg Mason's decision to not name her condition/talk about it in code gave me a sense of stigma and frustration around her journey and diagnosis that just didn't sit right.

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spookyaz's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense 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

3.75

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kiwichill's review

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challenging dark emotional reflective 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

5.0

Mental illness, alcoholism, family, motherhood, marriage

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bryonymarianne's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful sad fast-paced

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

4.5

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risemini's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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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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writingcaia's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.5

I was not convinced at first by the way it rambled on. These weird ravings of a 40 year old (my age give or take) women that seemed filled with so much anger towards everyone including herself, it felt a bit too much.
As it advanced I became addicted, there was a love story and a family story, and I wanted to know more, even though I felt a huge clench in my heart every time something written was so close to what I’ve felt or feel sometimes.
The anger, the anguish, the self destructiveness, it’s present as much in the voice of the writer as is in the story which makes it feel so real. And, I guess it is. Not in the sense of the actual story not being fiction but in the sense that the feelings, the arguments, the breakings, the misdiagnose, the hopelessness and the hopefulness are all real to some of us, they’ve been around us or in us.
I didn’t expect to love this book as much as I did by the end but here it

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