Once More, With Feeling by Sophie McCreesh

A special thank you to Penguin Random House Canada for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Once More, With Feeling follows Jane, an artist navigating her closest relationships while fixating on her own perceived failures and self-imposed isolation. When Jane receives a student grant to attend a workshop in London, England, she sees the opportunity to leave her tedious life behind and start anew, bringing along her new friend Kitty, who Jane will not admit she has little in common with other than a shared appreciation for boxed wine and various other drugs.

In London, Jane struggles to improve both her craft and her mindset while Kitty thrives, and a once exciting trip abroad transforms the already uneven dynamic of their friendship, leaving Jane feeling more withdrawn than ever. As her increasingly destructive behaviour gets in the way of her artistic ambitions, her most important relationships--those with Kitty, her absent lover Richard and a discredited therapist named Anna--begin to deteriorate as Jane starts to examine her growing dependence on substances.

Darkly funny, piercing and tender, Once More, With Feeling is a portrait of a detached young woman trapped in the perils of self-loathing and addiction, who is searching for originality in an age of profound social disconnection and anxiety.

In the vein of smart, deadpan, and unrepentant novels such as The New Me and My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Sophie McCreesh's distinctive and striking debut novel is about a young woman veering towards self-destruction. 

Jane, our protagonist, is incredibly complex and extremely detached. She is struggling to find her place in the world and seems to think that this is achieved through masochism and we are witness to her dizzying descent. 

The overall conversational tone serves the novel well and the writing is solid. But the plot is slow-moving and nothing actually happens. McCreesh is witty and there are some clever bits, although her humour does take some getting used to. 

With its arresting cover, Once More, With Feeling is morose, moody, and poignant. This book will find its niche audience and resonate with it. 

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SOPHIE MCCREESH is a fiction writer whose writing has appeared in Cosmonauts Avenue, Hobart, Bad Nudes and elsewhere. 

McCreesh resides in Toronto.