Anyone who has a sibling will recognise the themes and relationships that are explored in this raw and stunning novel. I thoroughly enjoyed it, despite some tough material at times, and I highly recommend. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for my copy of I'm Sorry You Feel that Way, a fabulous family drama. So relatable I couldn't fault it. Felt sad when I had finished it as I'd become so immersed in the character's lives.

This was my first Rebecca Wait and a read I greatly enjoyed. Usually domestic and family based books don't particularly interest me, but I greatly enjoyed this read. I think I will still be thinking about it and coming back to it for months and will definitely purchase a hard copy once this is published. I highly recommend.

I'd been thoroughly impressed by Our Fathers, and although I'm Sorry You Feel That Way could not be more different in terms of atmosphere, there is the same psychological astuteness that I enjoyed so much in Rebecca Wait's previous novel. Domestic comedy is not a genre I would usually go for, but I found myself giggling on several occasions while reading this book. Rebecca Wait has a real knack to creating extremely realistic characters, so that you can recognise in each of them someone you know, with all their qualities and annoying – if not infuriating – traits. A great read, as shrewd as it is entertaining!

I really loved this book. It was very different in tone to her previous novel, which I also loved.
This was a remarkable portrait of a family- a deeply unhappy, narcissistic mother and how her unhappiness affects the lives of her three children. Though the novel deals with serious topics (and does so brilliantly) it's also often hilarious. I laughed out loud several times when reading, first of all when Celia accidentally drop kicks a sausage roll across the room.
Really loved this and would highly recommend.

This is the best book I've read this year (I know it's only January but I read a lot!) It's a genuinely insightful book that drew me so far into the intricacies of a dysfunctional family's relationships that I almost got lost.. The character's personalities are extremelywell developed and I found I both empathised with and got angry and frustrated with each of them at different times. Any book that elicits that level of intense emotional investment is a good book in my opinion. I recommend it without hesitation,,

The first thing about this book that caught my attention was the title: the least apologetic apology out there, the thing one says when they're not really sorry at all. The thing everyone has probably heard or said at least once. I maybe should have realized right way that this book, the plot, the characters, would hit me like a train.

Opening with a funeral, especially for a person that - at first - seemed so disconnected from the rest of the characters and their stories was a bold move. I loved it. When we start to learn who they are, where they come from, it becomes clear that everything they are, everything they do, can probably be linked to that one character. It's sad, that. How easily we're shaped by the people around us, how easily that impacts the ones who'll be around us in the future.

The writing was really simple, which is not to say it was bad - on the contrary. With a plot like this, so focused on the characters' development, I think it's the perfect style of writing. To the point, straight-forward, but still lyrical enough to let us fantasize a bit better over what we're reading.
I finished this book in two days. I couldn't put it down. I'm not sure if that's because I could relate a bit to most of the characters, if I could see my own family in them, or if I'd simply grown attached to them. Not reading it felt like leaving them behind, and they don't deserve that. No one does, really, but especially not these ones.

I loved how open the ending truly was, because with a past like that...it's hard to let go. It's hard to leave the resentment behind, it's hard to be comfortable - I loved how realistic that development is. The happiest ending one could hope for, with a past like this, is one where people try. "I'm Sorry You Feel That Way" is a beautifully written, realistic story about a normal family, I think. The most normal out there, full of drama and struggles and not nearly enough communication. A tragedy with a few funny moments, indeed.

I loved this novel- I can see it being among my favourites of the year already. It is a provoking, gritty and at times emotionally challenging read without being self absorbed. Each of the characters is unsympathetic in a way that makes them very human and relatable. The way that each narrative was woven seamlessly into the next felt organic and compelling, with no self conscious cliffhangers.
A must read for me.

The gorgeous cover gives you the heavy hint that this book is for fans of Sorrow And Bliss, complete with a brilliantly depicted sisterly relationship, with all its push-and-pull moments (hello also, Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag). All of which means this book was right up my street. It’s full of uncomfortable moments of self-doubt and charts the lonely world of shared flats, lacklustre jobs and relationships that leave characters feeling bereft before they’ve even got started.
Navigating the tiny and not so tiny disappointments of life is a complicated business for Alice and her Hanna, 32-year-old twins, who are most definitely not identical in any way, yet inextricably connected.
The same was true for their mother, Celia, who has her own lonely, inescapable backstory. I loved Celia’s storyline as much as those of her daughters and son and felt for her as she made all the wrong decisions and turned into an infuriating mother of the highest order.
This book is about how a family’s past can weigh heavily on the present, yet throughout the writing is razor sharp and funny – very funny. And it has flashes of hope, friendship and connection alongside moments of comic desperation. I reckon this book is going to be a big summer read.
Trigger warning: the book covers mental illness and schizophrenia.

First of all let me preface this with saying that every character in this novel is a mess. They are emotionally messy, messy in their views of themselves and a messy in their interactions and relationships with one another.

This book is an exploration of the dynamics of family. It doesn’t shy away from showing the grotesque and ugly. Yet the author does this through quirky and slight off beat characters that are a pleasure to read.

The novel explores the lives of a family, it’s hilarious and warm, and one to make you laugh out loud. While some parts are dark it’s overall a gem of novel.

Families are awkward, difficult, and often put you in a box it can be hard to break out if.
I was entirely absorbed by this one.
Ordinary lives beautifully rendered.

What a stunning book! I loved the writing and there were so many moments where it broke my heart. I can't wait to read more by this author.

I really enjoyed this story about family dynamics. it was funny, dark, relatable and believeable. I couldnt put it down and really enjoyed it.

I like this book, but it was too slow in moments, and some characters stories were just not such interesting, it made me lose my focus in some parts, and then I had to come back to catch up.

A tender, dry humoured look at sibling relationships and the complexity of family.

I loved getting to know Alice and Hanna and their lives.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me read the book early in exchange for my feedback.

If you loved Sorrow and Bliss from Meg Mason then you’ll love this debut from Rebecca Wait…

This book is already one of my faves of 2022 and I am confident I will feel that way through the whole twelve months. An absolute stonker of a debut from Wait, it’s the story of a family but mostly its a story of the women in the family - their behaviours, their relationships, their thoughts and actions.

It tells the story primarily of Alice and Hanna, twins who are no longer close, the reasons that become clear to the reader over time. We learn about them individually as well as together, understanding how they think and feel away from each other and the impact they have on each other when together. As this is a story of women, we learn about their mother, overbearing and dominant at the beginning, yet humanised as we understand her earlier years and her relationship with her sister.

This book shouldn’t fool you - it is funny. Darkly so. It tackles difficulties in a way that you relate to, laugh at the idea of, feel close to. In the same way Mason encourages you to move close to Martha in Sorrow and Bliss, Wait creates and builds empathy in moments where the behaviours emitted are difficult to digest. She writes with flaws in mind - as all authors should - recognising imperfections in perfect way.

This is a charming, funny, moving family saga that gets under your skin. Each character is so humanely and compassionately written, even the ones that are incredibly unlikeable. It touches on serious mental health, difficult family relationships and how they play out into adult lives. It's a truly wonderful book.

SO much love for this brilliant book. Funny bits, sad bits, bits that are so perfectly worded that you have to read them out to anyone close by. A perfect tale of a dysfunctional family. In Celia shades of Gilda from Francesca Jakobi's Bitter and the rest are equally wonderful portraits of different characters which show so much of how we can be shaped by our childhood experiences. A glorious book in a glorious cover.

What a rollercoaster ride of a novel! This is an absolutely marvellous read that transports us through the highs and lows of a somewhat ordinary yet at the same time somewhat dysfunctional, fractured family. Eminently relatable (not personally, you understand, but as an observation of society as a whole).

The characters are quirky and often lost, hopeless, directionless, yet brave, enthusiastic, passionate, and charismatic. At times I couldn’t help but draw comparisons to <i>Fleabag</i> if she’d got married and had kids.

The peaks were hilarious and should come with a government health warning not to read this book in public nor attempt to eat or drink while doing so. Seriously laugh-out-loud funny. At times I had tears rolling down my cheeks.

The troughs were dark and brought a sharp worldly focus to the story, frequently bringing us back down to earth with a dash of harsh realism. At times I had tears rolling down my cheeks.

This young author is exceptionally talented. She expertly delivers beautiful prose that combines dry, acerbic wit with an acute observational study of human nature, complete with all its foibles and eccentricities.
I would recommend this without hesitation to my fellow book club members but would probably stop short of adding it to the set reading list of my Upper 6th since some of the issues may be a tad too close to home.

My thanks to NetGalley and Quercus Books for granting this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I can see why this is being marketed as '2022's Sorrow and Bliss.' I fell in love from the start with awkward Alice and her eccentric family, as she navigates her aunt's disastrous funeral, which somehow she has ended up planning! The lightness of touch and comedy were delicious, but I enjoyed some of the silly asides and little details more than the big comic set pieces (a drunken actor at the funeral, a party with an escaped ferret, etc, though they were great fun too).

The plot mainly revolves around Hanna, Alice's twin, and her mother's experience of growing up with Katy, her schizophrenic sister. Unlike Sorrow and Bliss, this book mentions the illness by name, but is similarly unclear on whether Hanna has inherited it or whether she had a one-off breakdown due to overwork at Cambridge. Hanna thinks the latter, and so is unafraid of relapsing, whereas their mother can't shake the idea that Hanna's future will be as terrible as Katy's.

I particularly loved Hanna's university friends Lavinia and Santiago, who were exactly like two of mine, and who look after Hanna when she resumes her studies. I was also happy that Alice realised something about herself that I was desperate for her to know! A really lovely book, and one I won't hesitate to buy when it comes out.