A review by littlesophie
Heartsick: Three Stories About Love and Loss, and What Happens in Between by Jessie Stephens

4.0

Prompted by her own series of painful heartbreaks, Australian journalist Stephens sets out to retell the stories of three different people in her debut book. Patrick, Ana and Claire are from different generations and backgrounds but they all share the experience of having relationships that they thought would last forever, suddenly breaking apart. Stephens transforms hours of conversation into three fictionalized stories in a set up that reminded me strongly of Lisa Taddeo's "Three Women". While intriguing, gripping and easy to read, I can't help but feel that by focusing on the relaionship before the break-up, Stephens slightly misjudges her own premise. Relatively little space is allocated to the actual break-ups, much less to the healing process that hopefully followed. I also feel that more voices with higher focus might have served the subject better. Nonetheless, this is a thoughtful book on an all too human experience, which is rarely this specifically written about otherwise.