Publishers Weekly
05/16/2022
Australian writer Stephens parses the “unique and universal” effects of heartbreak in this candid debut. Having experienced the “unholy blend of grief and self-loathing” that, she writes, often follows breakups, Stephens set out to construct a book that “didn’t explain away heartbreak,” but rather delved into its complexities. She effectively does this by telling the real-life breakup stories of three individuals: 30-ish Claire, who, after moving from London to Australia, met and married her personal trainer, Maggie, despite a friend’s caution not to; Ana, a mother of three, who began an affair with her husband’s best friend after 25 years of marriage; and 20-something college student Patrick, who fell in love with a girl he couldn’t have, until she broke up with her boyfriend for him. As Stephens unspools their stories, each of which succumbs to a slow ruin brought on by doubt and insecurities, she renders in affecting scenes the tidal shifts of emotion—the sickness, the bottomless despair, the acts of self-destruction—that accompany the demise of love. Despite the book’s melancholic nature, there’s beauty in her subjects’ vulnerability and resilience. As Stephens writes, “It is only through sharing... the most tormented parts of ourselves that we’re able to discover how much we have in common.” A paean to the lovelorn, this stuns in its rawness. (June)
From the Publisher
Thought-provoking, highly original, and beautifully nuanced. Jessie Stephens’s journalistic skill shines as she weaves together true stories with a narrative as compelling as any novel.”
—Jane Harper, New York Times bestselling author of The Dry
“Unflinching, perceptive, and inquisitive—all the things Jessie Stephens does best—Heartsick is a window into another person’s soul, with permission to read the inside of their heart. In its pages, Heartsick delivers what every brokenhearted person needs, the ability to see themselves in others who have walked this path before them. With this book, Jessie Stephens has just established herself as a major player in the Australian literary scene. A stunning debut.”
—Sally Hepworth, New York Times bestselling author of The Good Sister
“As Tolstoy forgot to mention, every heartbreak is heartbreaking in its own way. In this melancholy and oddly compelling book, Jessie Stephens tells the story of three individuals suffering their own unique torments of rejection and regret and longing for the impossible. If you have a heart, you should probably read Heartsick.”
—Tom Perrotta, author of Mrs. Fletcher and Tracy Flick Can’t Win
“In Heartsick, Jessie Stephens shines the light on the particular devastation of romantic heartache, a subject woefully under-discussed and under-supported in our culture. Stephens' book takes seriously the grief that follows a break-up, refusing to shy away from the messy post-break-up period when the heartbroken feels the light drain out of their days and the vitality escape their bodies. The real gold in Stephens' book is not that she offers false promises of instant healing or vapid slogans about how many fish are in the sea, but that she offers comfort and company to anyone aching from the loss of a love. I couldn't stop turning the pages of this big-hearted book, which will no doubt be a balm to so many.”
—Christie Tate, New York Times bestselling author of Group
“Heartsick is unlike any book I've ever encountered before—a devastating and remarkably empathetic account of three real relationships that's told with a novel's lyricism and grace. With her compassionate renderings of Ana, Patrick, and Claire, Jessie Stephens has given us that rare and precious thing: a story that makes us feel less alone.”
—Grant Ginder, author of Let's Not Do That Again and The People We Hate at the Wedding
“I couldn’t stop reading this book, and when love unraveled, I couldn’t stop feeling that someone finally understood exactly how it felt. Jessie Stephens honors how we find and lose ourselves so completely in one another, and why on earth we’d ever want to try again. Just like the relationships in this book, I didn’t want these stories to end.”
—Cathy Guisewite, creator of the “Cathy” comic strip
“Stephens parses the ‘unique and universal’ effects of heartbreak in this candid debut…by telling the real-life breakup stories of three individuals…Despite the book’s melancholic nature, there’s beauty in her subjects’ vulnerability and resilience…A paean to the lovelorn, this stuns in its rawness.”
—Publishers Weekly
“[Stephens] shares her own story of heartbreak, [and] seeks to help others acknowledge and survive this grief. Readers drawn to this book may be comforted in knowing that others have lived through heartsickness.”
—Booklist
Kirkus Reviews
2022-02-08
A Sydney-based writer and podcaster braids together the stories of three failed romances in an effort to demonstrate the universality of heartbreak.
Stephens opens her scattershot debut with a preface as well as introduction, and she closes with an epilogue and an essay on rejection. The bulk of the often maudlin narrative focuses on the different but equally unfortunate experiences of three people, identified with pseudonyms: Patrick, a naïve man in his 20s, “has never had a girlfriend before”; Claire is a 30-something lesbian; and Ana, in her 40s, is a married, unfaithful mother of three. Of her 25-year marriage, Ana “feels like she’s on one of those theme-park rides that spins too quickly and suddenly you’re stuck to the walls.” Before meeting Caitlin, Patrick had never had a woman other than his mother inside his bedroom; now, about her, he has fantasies like this: “They’re in bed and it’s too hot and their bodies are moving so fast, like the friction of sticks on the brink of creating fire.” Claire falls quickly in love with Maggie, who moves in within a few months of their first date. Stephens writes their narratives in the present tense, underscoring her case that past heartbreak is “still present.” The result is akin to three soap operas, spliced together, telling tales about crushing disappointment from the viewpoints of myopic characters. Ana’s life unravels over the course of her affair with Rob, until she “feels like she’s suffocating.” After Caitlin breaks up with Patrick, he asks himself, “Where does all the love go when there’s nowhere to put it?” Claire, having moved, at Maggie’s behest, to Toowoomba before being abandoned, “feels the searing pain that comes with the realization that the person you’re with doesn’t love you the same way they once did.” Stephens concludes that “the world is full of broken people who have put themselves back together,” but she offers very little evidence of healing or even evolving.
Shallow sappiness.
