Reviews with content warning for Suicidal thoughts - Sorrow and Bliss

Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

Sorrow and Bliss, by Meg Mason

173 reviews

writingcaia's review against another edition

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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ruth_power's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Absolutely brilliant! Just the kind of book for when you want to laugh and cry at the same time. Beautiful exploration of mental health and identity which is moving, hilarious, tragic and witty. I just want to read it again!

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starryeyesali's review

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challenging emotional funny hopeful informative 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

Martha should be totally unlikeable, but the description of her mental illness is so good I felt myself really routing for her throughout. The characters were wonderful, I liked them all in spite of their flaws, perhaps because of them.
Ultimately the book is about family, and about the effects of mental illness on the sufferer and those around them, about relationships and about the knock on effects of not getting a proper diagnosis (this had a huge effect on the kind of life choices Martha felt she could make).
I loved the strange lack of inverted commas throughout, as though some speech was somehow conveyed through body language, unspoken. Very very good.

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nini23's review against another edition

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2.25

This will just increase the 'you're going to change your mind' bingos that adult childfree women get from breeders ffs. It's CF baiting.
Ingrid can't seem to figure out how to use birth control, if I were Martha I wouldn't take advice from her.

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