What a Shame - Abigail Bergstrom

Genre: Literary Fiction | Adult Fiction

Release Date: Expected 3rd February 2022

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

Mathilda has been stuck in Limbo - since her Father suddenly died and her partner left her without warning she's been frozen in place, living in a world of confusion, despair and shame.

But even after burying her beloved father, destroying everything she could find that belonged to her ex, moving back in with her friend and trying her best to move on - she's still stuck. She's running out of ideas and her friends have some unorthodox, bordering ridiculous suggestions about how to get her life moving again that she's desperate enough to try. She never used to believe in superstition, but now it seems like she really is cursed - now the question is if she's breaking the curse, or her own heart.

"At first there was drama and morbid excitement-all the morose trimmings that come with the early stages of mourning and grief."

An unflinching, unapologetic journey of a young woman trying to navigate the many faces of grief and shame, and the absurdity that is being human. What a Shame is a harsh, raw look at loss and life full of millennial weirdness, darkly morbid humour and unbelievably relatable rage resonating through the pages. Tilda isn't an easy character to connect with - she doesn't want to let us in; she's angry, she's overworked, underappreciated, underestimated and she is just done. She is the an embodiment of modern female rage and the desperation we can feel to try and stay afloat.

This is such a statement on the complexity of grief and sadness - no two people grieve the same. Her friends begin to suggest the outlandish - like can she really banish her sadness with blessed bath salts? Can a tarot reading really predict her future? Or maybe if she just drinks a bit more she'll be fine.

The prose was beautiful, strangely poetic in places but not overly so. We hear through Mathildas point of view, and she often speaks directly to her Father and her Ex, leaving the reader trying to figure out who she is speaking to. There is a lot left to the reader, at the beginning it feels like there was key information missing, but as progress through the story we find it really doesn't matter. Sometimes, all that matters is that something happened, not how or why.

A sharp, wickedly funny story about acceptance and recovery with a haunting voice that will resonate with any other lost soul.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

I was gifted an advanced reviewers copy of this title in return for an honest review.

CW: death, funerals, breakups, sexual assault, sexism, drug use, self harm.

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