Sophie, Standing There

by Meg Mason

From the award-winning, bestselling author of Sorrow and Bliss comes an achingly tender, poignant, funny and bittersweet new novel

'So smart, so funny, so moving. I absolutely loved it' Bonnie Garmus, bestselling author of Lessons in Chemistry

'A moving examination of what it means to be alone in the world, and what it means to find connection. It is, by turns, heartbreaking, hilarious, and deeply hopeful. Meg Mason is a dazzling talent' Ann Patchett, bestselling author of Tom Lake and The Dutch House
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Sophie Pattison is a lovely person – warm, kind, relentlessly positive. She's cherished by her brother Laurie, adored by her best friend Emma and valued by her colleagues. Sometimes, it's true, one day in her life can feel like the entire month of January. It's also true she can go an entire day without speaking. But she's fine really. She spends her time alone reading, finding comfort in the pages of the books she devours.

Until one day she stumbles upon an author she hasn't read in years. Her books, interviews and podcasts soon become a lifeline; every word is a solace, company she hasn't felt in so long. It's almost like love.

A lot like love. And Sophie would love to meet the author, although she never will obviously. In a way, thank goodness, because that would change everything. Sophie's entire life. Wouldn't it?

Hilariously candid and raw, Sophie, Standing There is a bittersweet story of love, loneliness and finding connection in the most unlikely of places.
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'Sophie, Standing There unfolds like a strange origami crane in reverse - so achingly tender and so brilliantly subtle that I could never put it down... Dazzling' Catherine Newman, bestselling author of Wreck and Sandwich

'I loved Sophie, and I love Meg Mason's brain and the strange, wonderful, funny stories she gives us' Ann Napolitano, bestselling author of Hello, Beautiful and Dear Edward

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Books About Books

352 pages, Kindle Edition

Expected publication August 27, 2026

About the author

Meg Mason began her career at the Financial Times and The Times of London. Her work has since appeared in The Sunday Times, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Sunday Telegraph. She has written humour for The New Yorker and Sunday STYLE, was a GQ columnist for five years and a regular contributor to Vogue, marie claire, and ELLE.

Her first book Say It Again in a Nice Voice (HarperCollins), a memoir of early motherhood, was published in 2012. Her novel You Be Mother (HarperCollins) followed in 2017. She lives in Sydney.

Reviews

[Barb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Adored this one. But it’s not out till august 😱.

[Liz Hein · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think readers will feel the exact same way about Sophie, Standing There as they did about Sorrow & Bliss.

[Iz · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75

[Chelsea Knowles · Rating 4 out of 5]

*Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance reader copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.*

Sophie, Standing There follows Sophie Pattison who is a kind person who will help anyone out. She has a good relationship with her brother and a best friend who wants to spend more time with her. Sophie is a little lonely after her divorce and the time can pass slowly on her own. She is a big reader though and finds comfort in her books. One day she stumbles upon an author she hasn’t read in a long time. Sophie latches onto this author by re reading all the author’s books and watching interviews and podcasts of the author. In a way Sophie feels like she is in love with the author and would like to meet them. If she did meet the author, Sophie feels like it could change her whole life.

At first I wasn’t too sure about this book but the further I got into this, the more I came to understand Sophie. This book is focused on character over plot and Sophie is a nice person who has tried to do everything right but has ended up alone in her late thirties. It was easy to emphasise with Sophie and it made sense why she attached to the author. As this story is focused on Sophie, it is a little slow but I found it to be quite powerful. I think this is a good exploration of a parasocial relationship due to the way Sophie idealised the author, a person she didn’t know based on what she saw online and read. I will be recommending this book as I had a good time reading this. This book is also very bookish as Sophie works at book events, is a big reader and has friends at her local bookstore and I enjoyed that.

[Catherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished this, and immediately downloaded a podcast I remember listening to back in November 2021 - an interview with Meg Mason, in conversation with Hattie Crisell. Once you’ve read Sophie, Standing There, you’ll understand this impulse! I wanted to hear the author’s voice again.
This novel will stay with me for a long time. It is gut-wrenchingly sad and hopeful and compassionate. It’s about a parasocial relationship, behind-the-scenes at a literary festival, and the realities of life as a tech crew member (my partner works in sound & lighting and can confirm that Mason’s portrayal of this type of work is very accurate!)
I would like to know Sophie in real life. I’d love to have a conversation with her about books.

[Lauren Molyneux · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m trying to think of an author I love that could be my Lilac. I love whatever’s wrong with Sophie; there’s something about her obsession that I want to experience. But they do say you should never meet your idols…

“You could be sad in a bookshop, but you were never happier than when you were in a bookshop.”

“I don't miss people... I made that decision a long time ago. I'm not going to be depleted by another person's absence [...] If I can't see them, they don't exist. But it's a choice. Longing is not a good use of energy”

[Juliana Z]

Thank you to Net Galley and Harper Publishing for the ARC.

This novel follows Sophie, a recently divorced woman trying to figure out who she is outside of being a wife. Lonely, well-read, and painfully nice, she drifts through a week working as a sound tech at an author symposium, surrounded by literary figures and readers. At times she feels like a caricature of Eleanor Oliphant though Sophie specifically insists otherwise.

The first half of the book is very focused on character development. For a while, it felt like little was happening beyond Sophie’s internal monologue as she navigates the week. By the midpoint, however, I felt like I understood her, but I didn't really like her.

The second half of the book is where the story really begins. While there isn’t much action, there are monumental changes in the character—she takes herself to the brink and back again. It captured my attention, and I read the entire second half in one go because I couldn’t put it down.

Overall, this was a solid four-star read for me. I especially enjoyed the insights into the literary world and the relationships between authors, booksellers, and devoted readers. There are also some genuinely funny moments. I think it would make a great book club pick, particularly for discussions around divorce, identity, loneliness, and the role literature plays in people’s lives.

[Taylor - taylorsreadsandreviews · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a deeply thoughtful and rare look into how it feels to love something (albeit parasocially) in such a messy and all-consuming way as a distraction from grief.I absolutely adored this. It is on my list of “soul books”

[Caitlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first 50% of this book was very strong for me, but I found the second half of this novel less compelling or believable. Still definitely worth the read and a book I enjoyed, but it could have been a new favourite if done just slightly differently.

Sophie was a very compelling character for me, and she was why I loved the first half of this book so much. Not only did I love seeing how she acted and reacted throughout her every-day life, but I felt like I was experiencing everything she felt and on the same level, even if it was something that I myself wouldn’t feel in that same situation. Sophie’s emotions were just so well portrayed, while still being very subtly conveyed in the writing. An author being able to evoke strong emotion/reaction to “ordinary” circumstances, without exaggerating or being on-the-nose with their writing, is a feature in all of my favourite books.
It was also really refreshing to read about a main character who is kind and patient, while still being flawed and having occasional “selfish” thoughts which she mostly doesn’t act on, even when she should. This was a nice change just because this sub-genre of “lonely female main character who is obsessed with another person” is, I feel, full of messier and unlikeable main characters (which I do also enjoy but it is nice to have something a bit different).

As for why I struggled more in the later half of the book, I just felt that the plot-line that this half centred on (which doesn’t come out of nowhere by any means, but is definitely a shift in what is happening, for lack of a better spoiler-free descriptor) was prolonged to the point that I lost belief in it. The first half of this book felt so real to me that this shift made me lose a fair bit of my interest, or at least my investment, in the book. I will be vague to avoid spoilers in my description below, so do read on if you haven’t picked up this book yet.
I liked the start of this second half as I found the first few interactions to be tense and electric, but then the interactions seemed to over-stay their welcome. This meant that what Sophie was feeling became out of step with how I felt because I could no longer believe what was happening and didn’t feel the impact of it, which was very much not the case for the first half of this book. Also, while I liked a lot of what was uncovered about Sophie’s backstory, particularly with respect to her relationship with her ex-husband, I found the other big “reveal” about Sophie’s past (surrounding her childhood) out of place and not something that made a lot of sense for me. I can definitely see how it would have led to Sophie being how she is, and is in some ways interesting and fits with her character, but it just felt out of place to me in the narrative and thus I feel it could have been left out and the book could have been stronger for it. Without this explanation about Sophie’s past, I still think her character makes sense (particularly as someone who relates a lot to Sophie without having had a childhood like her’s) and thus I personally don’t feel like the way that this plot point was worth including.

My disappointment with the second half of this book definitely won’t be the case for many other readers though, so don’t let that put you off if you like the sound of this book!

Another thing to note is that this book is full of references to the literary world, particularly to authors themselves. The author Sophie is obsessed with doesn’t exist in real life, but many of the other authors who appear do and, as someone who loves to read a lot and happens to have read from and know of most of the authors who appeared in this book, I found this very fun. I can see how some people may find this annoying though. It is definitely heaviest at the start of the book, so I wouldn’t let you put it off.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC.

[ria · Rating 3 out of 5]

"sophie, standing there" is a complicated book, packing a lot more than you'd expect. as a result, my feelings for it are also quite complicated.

sophie is a sound tech, working book festivals. as she goes through a brutal divorce from her husband, paul, sophie turns to an author she'd forgotten about, but whose books she'd loved. she becomes infatuated and obsessed with this author, consuming every book, interview, podcast that she'd done, to the point that the author becomes a companion to sophie, in her mind. that is, until the author is announced to appear at one of the book festivals sophie works on.

this is a character-driven book, so the pace is quite slow, especially in the first half, which i can't say i struggled through, because i found this to be a very immersive read, but it also feels like it meanders a lot in the first 100 pages or so. that being said, i really enjoyed the narration style. it takes a bit to get used to, but once you do, it flows very nicely, despite the fact that it's very disjointed, kind of how it feels to sometimes space in and out of yourself - having your own internal thoughts, then coming back to trying to focus on what's happening around you, in real life.

i also think this does an incredible job at portraying sophie's parasocial relationship with this author she's never met, and the kind of maladaptive daydreaming she resorts to in her loneliness and unhappiness. it fluctuates back and forth between sophie's feelings of ease and happiness in hanging onto this imaginary world she's created in her mind, and complete shame, knowing that it isn't real, in a way that feels suffocating.

sophie's character comes undone and a lot of her action (or inaction?) makes a lot more sense in the second half of this, but i also don't know how i feel about all of that's revealed in this part, which is why i'm really on the fence about it. all the other characters, too, felt a bit unfinished to me, i couldn't really place them that well, so they all kind of blurred in the background.

overall, i think this is an emotional and honest portrayal of someone trying really hard to come back to themselves, or find some new version of themselves, after having spent an entire life trying to make space for others/make everyone else feel good. it is also an interesting exploration of the way we cope in unpleasant situations of grief and sadness. there is also some threads here about authors, and how much an author, through their work, belongs to us as avid fans and readers, but i found this to be a little flimsier than the rest of the book, personally. still, i think this is certainly a unique read, and hard to put down once you pick it up!

thank you NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for providing me with an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review! all opinions are my own

[Bonny · Rating 3 out of 5]

I went into Sophie, Standing There by Meg Mason expecting something sharp, funny, and emotionally insightful, and to be fair, it does deliver on some of that. Sophie is an immediately sympathetic character: gentle, withdrawn, and quietly struggling in ways that feel recognizable and real. Mason has a gift for capturing the interior life of loneliness, and there are moments of genuine wit and poignancy scattered throughout.

One of my favorite aspects of the novel was its deep immersion in the literary world. I loved all the references to books, publishing, and especially to authors themselves. They loom large in Sophie’s life, not just as creators but as emotional anchors. The portrayal of a reader’s relationship to a beloved writer felt incredibly authentic, capturing that peculiar blend of admiration, intimacy, and dependence that can form across the page. Those elements added a richness and specificity that really elevated the reading experience for me.

That said, I found myself increasingly frustrated with the pacing. I enjoyed the story, but it felt like it took forever to get anywhere. Much of the novel lingers in Sophie’s inner world without enough forward momentum, and while that may be intentional, mirroring her stagnation, it sometimes makes the reading experience feel stuck rather than immersive. I kept waiting for a shift, a spark, or a deeper development that would push things forward in a meaningful way.

The premise, especially Sophie’s attachment to the author who becomes a kind of emotional lifeline, is compelling and full of potential. When the book focuseson that idea, it’s at its strongest, exploring the strange intimacy between reader and writer in a thoughtful, almost tender way. But those moments are somewhat buried beneath repetition and a narrative that circles more than it progresses.

Overall, this is a thoughtful and occasionally moving novel with a strong central character, and a love letter of sorts to the literary world, but one that might have benefited from a tighter structure and a bit more narrative drive. I’m glad I read it, but I can’t help feeling it didn’t quite live up to what it could have been. (But Meg Mason is the author and I am clearly not!)

Thank you to Edelweiss and Harper for providing me with a copy of this book. It will be published on September 8, 2026.

[Nailya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meg Mason writes very compelling commercial women's fiction. Sorrow and Bliss suffered a bit from the hot mess millennial woman syndrome, but also managed to deliver a sympathetic portrayal of mental health struggles. In Sophie, Standing There, Mason revisits some of these themes telling the story of Sophie, a recently divorced woman in her late 30s who works in the book industry as an event technician and who is struggling to navigate her life. She becomes obsessed with a (female) author's writing, and soon this parasocial relationship develops into something different...

Mason writers her worlds very convincingly. Although there is little sense of specificity to the cultural and geographical context of this story (it could be set in any Anglophone city with a middling book scene), the world of literary events and the people who run them comes to life. The characters, though sometimes infuriating, also feel real. Mason's writing could easily descend into some sort of a middling class IKEA kitchen sink, but her warmth and kindness to her own creations makes her work more interesting than that. I was (standing) right there with Sophie, really feeling her emotions and sympathising with her issues. The epilogue and presence of Emma the friend, who we are told about but don't meet until the very end, reframes many of the things that happened to Sophie.

And yet, something about this book felt underdeveloped. The relationship with the Author was hinted to be deliberately meta, and I kept expecting some sort of a twist, just something a little bit less deliberately artificial (although I would have been very disappointed by a 'it was all a dream' resolution). Alas, Meg Mason is no Katie Kitamura, so the narrative is supposed to be taken at face value, and I did not find it particularly realistic. The big revelation about Sophie feels tacked on, and although it explains some of her behaviour, the core theme needed more space to be explored respectfully.

This book really reminded me of Death of a Bookseller, as focuses on a complex obsessive relationship of two women in the book world. It is a better book, and I enjoyed reading it, but it could have been more.

[Roman Clodia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is so different in character, almost defiantly so, to Sorrow and Bliss. Sophie is the nice, kind, almost self-effacing counterpart to Sorrow and Bliss' sardonic and spiteful Martha. This time, told in a third person voice, we are slightly at a distance from Sophie, and even the close reflections of what's in her head are mediated through the narrative voice which is itself kindly and sympathetic towards Sophie. Because Sophie is navigating a difficult break-up, is keeping a distance from her best friend, and whose loneliness is only alleviated through her brother, who is also lovely and kind.

It's quite hard to make all this niceness not feel saccharine, but Mason does manage that, not least through Sophie's job as a freelance tech support at book festivals. And this is a novel steeped in literature: some of the humour, albeit much less dark, that we've come to expect, emerges from the festivals where all manner of things go hilariously wrong. But it's also the case that Sophie's emotional prop turns out to be an obsession with a writer whose books she has loved.

In lots of ways this is a feel-good book that made me smile and go 'awwww' at the end. Not all 'sad girl' books have to be dark, sharp and spiky - and this one proves it. I especially love Mason's cheekiness in telling stories in the novel of real-life authors: Mick Herron, Richard Osman, Zadie Smith all get name-checked, and it's intriguing thinking about who the original of Lilac might have been in Mason's head, if anyone real.

So lovers of Sorrow and Bliss might have to make an emotional adjustment with this book - but in the end, in its quiet, nice, kind way, it won me over: 3.5 stars

Many thanks to Bloomsbury for an ARC via NetGalley

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This felt like a deconstructed literary novel.

There is constantly a distance created to stop you suspending disbelief and remind you that you are reading someone’s creation.

Sophie works as a tech at a literary festival so we keep hearing about what fictionalised versions of real authors are like which pushes against the way you want to get immersed in the world of the book.

Then she gets a galley of a new book which leads to a mania to read all the authors previous work and consume every bit of media she can find about the author. I thought this was a great portrayal of limerence and how sometimes the source of attraction can lie within the beholder and not the object.

We see everything through Sophie’s eyes but we don’t know much about her as if she is just standing rather than someone’s whose actions will propel the story forward. Rachel Cusks work is name checked to help evoke this post modern device.

But then she starts to tell her life story to an author and it turns out she has a very eventful life, enough to drive several conventional novels. But the author she is talking to is bored by this and often wanders off while the story is being told. This doesn’t stop the telling though to remind us that the story is being told to the reader and not the characters.

It is all brought together in a meaningful way but the ending is told in an almost hypothetical way to leave you with the experience of reading something created and not real.

Elizabeth Stout is an often mentioned but absent author as she cancels her appearance due to covid. The festival local book stores have ordered lots of copies of her breakout novel Olive Kitteridge that they don’t know what to do with as a result. These were two neat ways of showing how readers can freeze authors in the past. I particularly enjoyed that Elizabeth Strout has written possibly the best Covid novel (Lucy by the sea) which ties these two together but that is left as an exercise to the reader.

Overall I really enjoyed this and I think it will be one of my favourite books of 2026.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for the arc

[whatzoreads · Rating 5 out of 5]

When your life orbits that of an addict, you eventually understand that love doesn’t stretch; it empties, and there will be casualties.

Sophie, Standing There holds so many kinds of loneliness at once. Sophie lives a quiet, interior life, finding connection where she can – in books, in a myriad of small moments, in a job she loves, in an extremely close relationship with a sibling, and in a secret obsessive parasocial relationship – but the novel deepens and starts to make sense when her former love story enters the room. Her husband is gone. Their marriage was eclipsed by the constant presence of her addict brother-in-law. What remains is absence, and an ache that never settles. And perhaps her marriage makes sense when her complicated childhood enters the room.

This book understands imbalance and the profoundly lonely experience of families shaped and sacrificed by addiction and co-dependency. If you have ever shared that space, carried that worry, that responsibility, the fear of what might happen, this will land deeply. If you’re drawn to contemporary literary fiction that explores the quiet, complicated realities of love shaped by absence, dependency, and emotional displacement, this will stay with you. It doesn’t resolve the ache. It just names it, cleanly and honestly, and that’s what makes it impossible to forget. This one is definitely for the sad girls; it wounds as much as it heals.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this in exchange for my honest thoughts. I absolutely loved this; it's one of the most emotionally intelligent literary fiction books I've read so far in 2026. I am already planning the reread with tabs and highlighters for when I get hold of my physical copy in August.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

‘Sophie, Standing There’ is strange reading. A woman awkward, lonely and bereft, I found myself gradually warming to her and feeling sad that she had so little faith in herself.

Sophie is a freelance sound techie and general dogsbody, involved primarily in the smooth running of book festivals. She’s part of a team but they don’t mean much to her. Whilst most of the behind-the-scenes characters merge into a portrayal of twenty-something cheap labour, Sophie enjoys working with Fraser – but then he disappears. Apart from her recently married devoted brother, Laurie, and her friend, Emma, whom she can’t bear to see, Sophie feels as if she has no one. Separation from her really unpleasant husband, Paul, has reinforced her feelings that she is worthless. Why would anyone want to be friends with her?

So, Sophie falls in love with an author. She reads her obsessively; she listens to her podcasts and she has internal conversations with her. Knowing that this is ridiculous, imagine her horror when she has to look after the author at a festival. Will this woman prove herself to be as wonderful as Sophie’s fantasy?

‘Sophie, Standing There’ falls down a little when compared to Mason’s first novel, ‘Sorrow and Bliss’; there’s a little too much of Sophie alone in her vile flat. However, there is some very sensitively wrought depiction of life in a sect and the ongoing ramifications of such an experience. And I loved the ending – beautifully composed and perfectly accomplished.

My thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing Plc for a copy of this book in exchange for a fair review.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Sophie, standing there' is such a beautiful depiction of a young woman at a huge turning point in her life and yet she is so stationary. Sophie is going through the motions following so much grief and loss and its heartbreaking in the most eloquent way. Mason really captures that gut wrenching feeling of loneliness in a world that moves on so fast without you and it felt refreshing to read a novel where the MC isn't instantly snapped out of it by a new love interest or epic solo adventure. Instead we watch as Sophie puts one step in front of the other and slowly finds herself instead of fitting a space someone has given her.
The relationship between Sophie and Lilac had its moments for me, for flashes I saw a real poignancy and it was those moments that Sophie lit up. However I, as a reader, wanted to shake her because I was invested and could see where this might be going. (No spoilers)
I really got into this novel because I raced through it, there is a real skill in writing the ordinary and making it into a page turner and Mason has that in spades. If you love a character driven novel then this one is for you but I also really enjoyed the almost fable arc of this story. Sophie fixates on an idol and it becomes this outlet for her to move forward in her life, but when that fantasy meets reality it isn't what she is expecting and yet, she grows even more from it.
For me, Sophie symbolises the power of self and is definitely one of the more unique stories that will stay on my mind for a long time to come.

[Diana Stefancu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you Netgalley for giving me the chance to read this before the launch! I am more than grateful for the opportunity.

I've read Sorrow and Bliss a few years ago, after a friend recommended it. I am known among friends to be the one who enjoys the sad and painful stories best. A little masochist I suppose. While this may be true of my reading taste, I didn't fall head over heels for Sorrow and Bliss. That being said, I wasn't entirely sure of what this new Meg Mason would do to me, but I really needed to try again.

My favourite part about Sophie, Standing There was the main character being an avid reader at 39 (to which I relate immensely) and all the author and book name drops sprinkled in most of the story. I did viscerally hate certain paragraphs where she was put down by other characters and wanted to break my kindle into pieces. While I wish I could say that was the author's great writing taking effect, I'm afraid it was also having these secondary characters be over the top, exaggerated and caricatured in terms of their behaviour. In a lot of chapters I had this feeling that it was all in her imagination, ALL of it. The entire book.

I didn't enjoy the "talking to the Talent/author" before meeting her.. having the author as a secondary character, basically an imaginary friend could have easily been removed from this story and not affected the plot. Sophie's obsession was still clear, still present, no need for this whole ghost-like creature.

This could possibly be too depressing even for me. Just a never-ending pit of despair.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sophie Pattison is a lovely person – warm, kind, relentlessly positive. She's cherished by her brother Laurie, adored by her best friend Emma and valued by her colleagues. Sometimes, it's true, one day in her life can feel like the entire month of January. It's also true she can go an entire day without speaking. But she's fine really. She spends her time alone reading, finding comfort in the pages of the books she devours.

Until one day she stumbles upon an author she hasn't read in years. Her books, interviews and podcasts soon become a lifeline; every word is a solace, company she hasn't felt in so long. It's almost like love. A lot like love. And Sophie would love to meet the author, although she never will obviously. In a way, thank goodness, because that would change everything. Sophie's entire life. Wouldn't it?

At times I really enjoyed this and other times it really dragged - not because some parts were better than others but because it was very 'samey' and the enjoyment waned as it just went on and on, more and more of the same. Yes, it's a good exploration of grief and it's well written but it was like a never-ending chapter with no progression. I thoroughly enjoyed the literary references but sadly this wasn't enough to hold my interest and I strugged to finish.

My thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for an advance copy in return for an honest review.

[Kirsten · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sophie Standing There is a beautifully observed character study of trauma, loneliness, and love. It traces the bittersweet relationship between Sophie and an author she becomes infatuated with after they meet at a literary festival.

Mason’s writing is both quirky and deeply moving, balancing sharp wit with an undercurrent of pathos. At its heart lies a compelling question: what does it mean to love? As an avid reader, I especially appreciated the novel’s intertextuality. References to characters like Eleanor Oliphant, alongside nods to well-loved authors, help ground the narrative while enriching its emotional resonance. The idea of relatable female characters ‘trapped inside our e-readers’ feels both familiar and quietly poignant.

A sense of emotional strain permeates the novel, shaped by the gradual unveiling of intergenerational trauma. As Sophie’s past—and her relationship with Paul—comes into focus, the narrative reveals itself in a deliberately restrained way. This measured unfolding, set against the mundanity of work and everyday conversation, heightens the reader’s unease.

A poignant exploration of women and loneliness, this is a novel readers will savour—and its ending is simply beautiful.

[Katy Wheatley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sophie is quiet and obedient. She goes out of her way to make others feel good, even at her own expense. At the time the book opens, Sophie has been going through a brutal divorce, surviving on a diet of books and self abnegation. Her job is to support authors at book festivals so this plays to both her strengths until she becomes obsessed an author who is suddenly appearing at a festival Sophie is working at. What happens when Sophie's fantasy life becomes a reality?

This is a complicated book. At times it felt like two books, one which explores the lives of authors and the publicity machine that surrounds them and one which explores Sophie's character. Getting one to reflect the other is at times more successful than others in this book. It seemed strangely weighted so that for the first hundred pages I was waiting for it to begin and at times there was too much focus on this or that but not this and that. Having said that, once I got into it I really enjoyed it. I thought the last third of the book was the brilliant.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, I loved this book to the point of obsession. It crept up on me until I was about halfway through and gobbling it up every minute I could find. Felt like Sophie‘s obsession with her author.
Starts off with the sad girl narrative. we’ve read many times before, but I didn’t mind because it was well written and I cared about her so when things took the turn they did I was swept up in it holding my breath wanting to know what’s next, what’s going on?
Also really enjoyed the peripheral characters, especially the two in the bookshop. Annelise was winding me up something shocking. The referencing of known authors and how they might behave was fun. I’d love to know what they think.
Enjoyed the ending too. Kind of laughing at itself wrapping everything up but letting you go along for the ride.
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC. Started looking up Meg Mason to find I’ve read all her books except for one which hasn’t been released in the UK and so is pretty expensive to get hold of - hurry up UK publishers!

[Ashleigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you Harper Collins for my gifted copy of Sophie, Standing There.

I honestly could not tell where the plot was going or what points Meg Mason was trying to make until the end. This seems genuinely intentional, an emotional rollercoaster in the best way. I read Sophie, Standing There in a day. I could not put it down, I only came up for air once I had finished it. It left me dazed with a lot to digest. The writing is excellent, this novel is character-driven which slowed the pace but did not detract from my engagement, it made the prose more impactful. Sophie is someone who lives a quiet life on the periphery thrust into the main character position, I grew to love her by the end. This novel is for those fascinated by parasocial relationships, demystifying writers and topics that lie in shades of grey. The best way to prepare yourself for Sophie, Standing There is to go in blind.

Out 28/7/26.

[alicebme · Rating 4 out of 5]

I spent a great portion of my reading time feeling entirely disregulated, because dear Sophie was entirely disregulated. Big things about Sophie’s life are withheld, perhaps because Sophie is a character who keeps her thoughts and feelings behind different doors, so they can never meet up and compare notes. I did not enjoy occupying that headspace with her. And then the reveals had their moments, and there was illumination for me as the reader, but dear Sophie was very slow to the truths. The character of Lilac makes terrific sense in this book, and if I were the author, Lilac would have been the part that kept me from giving up on my Sophie Book. Are all of the characters fragments of Sophie’s brain?!? I’m adding another star for how much I’m thinking about this book I did not enjoy reading.

eArc from NetGalley

[Jackie Murrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sophie is struggling. Brutally dumped by her husband, who gave her the news without even removing his ear buds, she is eking out an existence in his bleak and rundown “investment” flat. Her survival tactic is immersing herself in books, and she works as a tech assistant for literary festivals, helping authors with their speaking events but rarely receiving acknowledgement or appreciation. In her crushing loneliness, she becomes obsessed with an acclaimed author who becomes like an invisible friend and even love object to her, and her life beegins to change. I don’t think this book will have the massive popular appeal of Mason’s first novel, “Sorrow and Bliss,” as it is quite a slow burn and is rather more quirky, but for a patient and thoughtful reader it brings great rewards, and as an extreme reader myself I positively wallowed in the bookish setting. It is very poignant and compassionate about the lows that can strike often unexpectedly, particularly loss of love and friendship, grief and infertility, but despite this is often darkly funny. As Sophie’s unusual back story slowly unfolds, we get to understand her and the forces that made her who she is so that she is a fully rounded person who seems more like a living person than a character, while the author Lilac reveals vividly what it is like to be a celebrated writer who gets recognised in public by people who feel they not only know her through reading and loving her books but also somehow own a piece of her. Such is the power of the written word, very much in evidence in this absorbing novel.

[Ophelia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meg Mason is usually a go‑to author for me. If she writes it, I read it. This one just didn’t land the same way, and I think that has more to do with where I am than with her writing.

The novel follows a sad, socially awkward, lonely protagonist, and I’m simply not in the headspace for that right now. I’m trying to step out of that era in my own life and lean into being vibrant, fun, effervescent, so I think I needed a different kind of handbook at the moment.

Mason still writes beautifully (I know that sounds like a platitude, but it’s true). She has an incredible command of language and emotional nuance. This particular character‑driven story just wasn’t for me this time.

[Madison · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book really gets at the heart of what it's like to, however briefly, have insider access to someone famous whom you deeply (and perhaps unhealthily) admire. I've had much less dramatic experiences in that vein, and I really felt that tension in Sophie. It's also just simply a successful work of ~women's fiction~, as much as I wish we had another name for the genre that concerns itself with the inner life of a woman at a crossroads, and I found myself wishing to just live inside Sophie's head and life for however long I could.

[ireadyouread · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was ready for the new Meg Mason and boy did it not disappoint. She always writes the most relatable characters whether you’ve been through the same situations or not. Sophie is a woman that hasn’t quite got all her life sorted. Well she thought she did but then the chaos begins. I loved how this story took infatuation with a famous person and how it has the possibility to completely change your life in more ways than one. There is so much that was encapsulated within this book that I loved. Next one please!

[Sadhbh O'Sullivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yeah ok I enjoyed this. The pacing was a bit lopsided for my taste (there's a 'reveal' towards the back end that I think could have been better forshadowed) but I thought the inner world of Sophie was very compelling. Someone this acquiescent could easily be annoying but I really did feel I understood her and how she reached this point. Also enjoyed how bookish this is (reminded me at times of Alice Slater's first book set in bookshop) and it was wonderfully written.

An effective exploration of parasocial infatuation

[Ellen Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m obsessed with this book and with Sophie! I relate to her so much not just because of her love of books but because she’s a loner like me. I enjoyed how this book has a likeable character with a great plot and ties everything into the literary world. It shows how relationships can be complex just like life itself. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.