Gone to Pieces: An unforgettable fiction debut for 2025, sharp, funny, vulnerable, perfect for fans of Sorrow and Bliss, Fleabag and The Bell Jar

by Rachel Cosyns

A crushingly funny and poignant debut, perfect for fans of Sorrow and Bliss.

There are three things I have to do this year. Just three. All the other things don't matter.



• Learn to drive on motorways.• Use above skill to run away to France.• Begin new life in France under assumed name.Rebecca is a wife, mother and the author of an unmanageable number of to do lists.

Her attempts to coerce her life into something she has any hope of controlling are failing. Her family can’t manage without her but she’s starting to think they should. So she makes a decision. Only it doesn’t quite go to plan.

Rebecca finds herself in therapy with a doctor poking around in her brain, asking questions about her childhood. She wants to get better but that means telling someone how she feels. How she really feels.

She’s gone to pieces. Can she put herself back together?

‘Really enjoyed this book! I liked how unreliable the narrator was, and how you have to piece together what's going on from the various narratives running through it.’ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

416 pages, Paperback

Published December 17, 2024

Reviews

[Aoife Cassidy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was drawn to this book by the tagline comparing it to Sorrow and Bliss and Fleabag. I’m afraid it didn’t live up to its billing.

This novel about a mentally ill woman (Rebecca) and her attempt to get better with the help (questionable at times?) of her psychiatrist Titus was a slog to get through, not helped by having to read the story that Rebecca was writing in parallel about a woman called Emily and her psychiatrist Cyrus.

I was bored and wanted to give up at the halfway mark but hoped once the protagonist got to France it might pick up. It didn’t unfortunately. Not for me. 2/5 stars

*Thank you to the publisher HQ for the arc via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Derval · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 maybe?! This was long and dull, I really struggled to keep going with it. Rebecca was irritating and her doctor seemed unprofessional. The story within a story conceit got boring very quickly and there was so much of Rebecca's childhood, most of it largely unconnected to what ultimately happened. I liked the moments where Rebecca was with her daughters, but otherwise this was not good.

[Beth S · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really wanted to give up on this book and place it as a DNF, however I powered through to the end and I regret it.
This book is overly complicated in its characters, the main character, Rebecca, writes about someone, Emily, who writes about someone else. There is an imaginary friend and really nothing of interest happens at all. It’s depreciated as funny and moving but the main character is unlikable and there wasn’t a single moment I found funny. I’d recommend picking up something else… (sorry).

[Sally Cowling · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gone to Pieces centres around middle aged woman and the conversations with her psychiatrist Titus (in person and via email) as she suffers a mental health crisis.

I liked the way that the chapters were titled "Piece 1", "Piece 2" and so one, as she gradually pieves together events from her past that lead to her breakdown.

I was a little confused by the sections written by the main character Rebecca as a story, where she gave the characters different names, but was obviously about her. However,  perhaps this is symbolic of the madness that she experiences as a result of her illness.

A quirky, almost humorous read, but with some triggers for abuse and suicide.

[Ayoola Naheem · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gone to Pieces is an emotionally raw and heartfelt exploration of mental health, identity, and the complexities of being a woman over 50. Rebecca's journey from trying to control her chaotic life to unraveling it in therapy is nothing short of moving. I found myself rooting for her every step of the way.

This book dives into the unspoken struggles that many women face, and it does so with humor, warmth, and honesty. The balance of wit and vulnerability makes Rebecca’s story both relatable and uplifting, even when the going gets tough.

If you’re a fan of Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason or enjoy poignant, character-driven tales, Gone to Pieces should be on your reading list. A fresh voice in contemporary fiction that sheds light on mental health in a way that feels both authentic and empowering.

Can’t recommend this one enough; it's a modern-day classic in the making! 💫

[Clarissa Edwards · Rating 2 out of 5]

After a recommendation I was disappointed by this book. It didn't seem to go anywhere, apart from capture some of the disjointedness one may feel with mental health conditions. The pseudo-story written within the story was grating (and by the third story I was ready to throw the book down - this was not 'Inception'). The psychiatrist was too characterised, appeared to add little to the book and at some points felt insulting to the professional (albeit knowing that we were seeing him through the eyes of a patient). The ending felt predictable by the time we got there.
I wouldn't recommend this book.

[Priscilla · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was such a depressing read. It follows a woman, Rebecca, through a year of therapy, after she tries to kill herself. Her husband is a great support. Her therapist is more concerned with the drugs she’s taking than her mental state.

We follow Rebecca down memories of her childhood, to France for a holiday and during a long term stay in a psychiatric unit.

I almost didn’t finish this book, but convinced myself it would be worth finishing. Unfortunately it wasn’t.

[KathVBtn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this up at the airport thinking it would be a lighthearted easy beach read, based on the cover and blurb but it wasn’t anything like that at all. It was much more angsty and introspective. I found it complicated and repetitive , and didn’t care about what happened to any of the characters.

[Noa · Rating 1 out of 5]

really bad lol. i think it was going for a sorrow and bliss vibe but failed miserably. storyline was not well put together at all and just confusing and uninteresting would not recommend

[Becky Jones · Rating 2 out of 5]

Confused, idk what’s happening, help, confused

[Sandraburke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gone to pieces

A very good book quite emotional to read , showing that you can recover from serious mental health issues with suitabechelp

[Amy James · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book built really well but I felt like it was building to nothing and just ended abruptly. I don’t really understand what the conclusion was, felt like the author just gave up at the end

[Alma Aranda · Rating 1 out of 5]

Confuso. Muy rebuscado.

[Kerry · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF!

[Anna Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

I struggled to get into this book.

[Lucy Reynolds · Rating 1 out of 5]

I persevered till about 60% but Sorrow and Bliss and certainly The Bell Jar, this is not.
This is a shame as a middle aged woman myself I was looking forward to a novel with a similar aged protagonist, which might have looked at the stresses of this time of life and the effects on mental health.

[Amb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you so much to @hqstories for sending me this copy in exchange for a review. The cover and description sold me immediately on this book

This story was really cleverly told and pieced together bit by bit. Especially when we got present chapters and then flashbacks to the past. Learning about her childhood and the people who were part of it helped us understand the ‘why’s of the story more.

When our main character,Rebecca, was writing and then her character was writing it was like a book within a book within a book, which was pretty cool to read about. The therapist, Titus, was an interesting character and added another level to this book

I love mental health representation in books because I think it’s so important to raise awareness and break the stigma and talk about it. I deal with my own mental health struggles daily so I also relate to parts of books like this

This story showed the amount of energy and support needed to heal from hard things that have happened. You won’t just ‘get better’ instantly, it takes work and time. We all need help sometimes and someone to lean on. Healing is linear, but that’s okay ❤️‍🩹