I received an ARC of this book with thanks to HarperCollins Publishers Australia via NetGalley.

Normal people say, I can't imagine feeling so bad I'd actually want to die. I do not try and explain that it isn't that you want to die. It is that you know you are not supposed to be alive, feeling a tiredness that powders your bones, a tiredness with so much fear. The unnatural fact of living is something you must eventually fix.

An up close and personal look at mental illness, how it impacts a person and the people closest to them, especially when what you're living with can go undiagnosed and misdiagnosed for an essentially long period of time.

I was conflicted at the beginning of this book. I didn't overly like the protagonist Martha, (intentional of Mason I'm sure) but was intrigued by Ingrid and Patrick. I told myself to relax into the book and to let myself be guided. I shouldn't have worried because the second half blew me away.

It's a brutally honest account of how one, on their own, builds a fortress surrounding them and how the most difficult but rewarding act is dismantling it, with help and guidance from loved ones whilst seeking forgiveness, with the added realisation that you're done being hopeless. So confronting, yet comforting. It hit close to home in many facets. Sorrow and Bliss is exactly what this book is.

4.5 stars.