So Sad Today: Personal Essays

It's hard to understate how meaningful this book is to me. I was apparently the last person to know about the @sosadtoday Twitter account, only doing so once the book started to get press. It came out at a time when I was deeply struggling with my own depression and had no idea what to do about it. These essays are stark and raw and honest and gut-wrenching, in the best way possible. I appreciated how Broder went to those vulnerable places without sparing herself or the reader. She delves deep into her social anxiety, how her husband's illness has affected her, feeling needy, and other topics without wallowing in her despair, but simply exploring it in a way that I found eminently relatable. I also was so glad that she wasn't trying to "fix" herself, or, by extension, readers experiencing similar issues. That's not to say that she revels in depression or anxiety, but she meets it head on, without flinching. I've started carrying this book around with me when I travel as something to look to, not necessarily for guidance, but for solace. Even though more celebrities are openly talking about depression and mental health, we rarely get the chance to see such unfiltered looks at what it's actually like to think those thoughts, to embody them on a daily basis, and Broder does that. Often in memoirs there's a hallelujah moment where the narrator realizes how to heal themselves and their life changes grandly. Spoiler alert: that doesn't happen in So Sad Today, even though there are moments of peace and calm amidst the mental chaos; it is not a bleak book, in my opinion. But what it does offer is something more complex; Broder details how she deals with her brain and her thoughts and how it plays out in real-life interactions with people. It's certainly not always pretty, but life isn't, and while I have no idea if it will have the same effect on other readers, I can say that for me, it helped me immensely at a time when I had trouble articulating what was wrong with me to anyone in my life, nor would I have wanted to.

First time reading MB and I am hooked, already craving more of her beautiful, raw prose.A relatable read. Depressing, but also deeply engrossing and unputdownable. SST allowed me to relate to a book like I have not been able to in a while. Felt like a needed venting sesh with a friend to me, where we bond over how messed up and simultaneously flawless and beautiful we are.If you are a fan of I’m Thinking of Ending Things, or anything by Otessa Moshfegh, you will love this excellent collection of personal essays.After this I am sure to delve into her fiction.

I envied Melissa Broder her courage in telling us so much about herself, her thinking, her life. She's cruelly honest -- I admire that -- and she's got a way of making the saddest mistakes that we all make oh-so-funny. Witness: A love story -- that chapter had me laughing to the point of tears. I'd give this book a 5 if I finished it feeling like I knew her. But I did not feel she totally opened up about issues that I care about. For instance, her debacle with Effexor: what? She was on benzos for quite some time. So, how'd she get off them and did she even miss them once gone?Short-take: tell us more about what effects your audience and less about those rarities that don't. I learned things I didn't need to know and I felt a bit robbed that you shorted me on the events of your story that might help the rest of us.But hey, you're so damn funny and unorthodox that I love you anyway. I just wish I'd gotten to know you better so I'd know how Ron Jeremy made out, for instance.Mostly I love you for laughing at the horror of life and letting us in on the joke. Made me feel comforted -- less alone.Keep going!

I've never felt more validated and less alone than I did after reading this. Every article and every review in favor of this book all say the exact same thing - "I can't believe someone else feels how I do" and "I guess I'm not the only one." So this review is the exact same as every other review, but I don't care. Melissa Broder has done something great here.One time my friend said, "I think maybe people like art they find familiar? They want to return to one of a few feelings they already know." And to me, that's what this book is. It's what's already in my head and my heart. And knowing that SO MANY other people hold this work in the same regard makes me feel a little less alone.Don't get me wrong - i'm still very much alone and in those moments I can't stop thinking that I'm the only one who has ever had these thoughts in the history of forever. But in the back of my head, this book and the subsequent coming-together of folks in support of it let me know that the world is full of minds similar to mine. I love to scribble in the margins of books to make them feel more like my own, but I don't think I'll do that with this book. It already feels like it's been done, in Broder's own words.Since Broder will likely never see this and this review is more for everyone else coming to see what the book is all about, leave their own review, or find people whose hearts match their own - this book has your back. This book will be both the slow ballad that you listen to when you need to cry AND the power anthem you rock out to when you're ready to open the curtains and look at the world again.