Juicy: How to Live a Life in the Wreckage of Expectations

by Sheree Joseph

Juicy  is the story of what happens when life unravels, and a love letter to those who have had to start all over again.'Listen. You are the back-up plan. You will always have yourself, no matter what.'At 33, Sheree Joseph stood in the ruins of the life she thought she'd no partner, no children, no neat timeline. Instead, a pandemic, profound grief and the unsettling realisation that everything she'd been told to want – marriage, motherhood, security – might not arrive. Or, if it did, that it wouldn't look anything like she'd imagined.Set against the backdrop of a world in crisis, Juicy is a memoir of heartbreak, healing and rewriting the narrative. In the face of grief, failed fertility treatments, fractured relationships and a love life that refused to go to plan, Sheree searches for meaning and forging forever friendships, tracing her Lebanese-Australian roots, journeying through sun-drenched Europe for the trip of a lifetime and returning to Sydney to rebuild among the wreckage of expectations. Through it all, she learns to let go of a life that was never truly hers.Written with warmth, wit and unflinching honesty, Juicy is a generation-defining memoir for women learning, piece by messy piece, to live lives far richer, deeper, juicier.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir

325 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 28, 2026

About the author

Sheree Joseph is an award-winning Arab-Australian writer living on the unceded lands of the Darug peoples in Western Sydney. She is the former Managing Editor of The Vocal, an award-nominated solutions journalism publication at Fairfax. Her work has appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald, ABC, SBS, Overland, Russh, Junkee, The Lifted Brow, and The Everywoman. As an ongoing member of Sweatshop Literacy Movement, Sheree has published her fiction in Sweatshop Women (2020) and Love (2025). Her debut memoir, Juicy, is set to be released in 2026 with Pantera Press.

Reviews

[Sheree Joseph]

I might be a bit biased.

[Sophie Roberts]

Incredibly biased because I lived this book alongside Sheree, but I loved it.

[Alexandra]

Literally cried my face off reading this. Having been on a somewhat similar unintentional/non traditional life path it was so important to hear how someone else worked through a lot of the very complex and sometimes lonely feelings I have been ... then coming out the other side so strong and happy with plan b/c/d.

A billion stars if I could, most important thing I’ll read all year ♥️♥️♥️

[N]

UPDATE/WARNING: Sheree posted my review on her insta story inviting people to attack me. I’m now getting harassed online by her fans across my other accounts. People have tried to get into my Amazon and good reads accounts and other linked social media’s. I’ve had to reset all my passwords and my inbox is blowing up with access requests and password reset requests. Please don’t harass me, I’m entitled to my own opinion of a book I read. I know Sheree, i’ve met her at parties so it’s really disappointing to see her invite harassment to someone who was expressing their opinions. I’m entitled to have my account set to private, just because I don’t share every moment of my life publicly like Sheree does, doesn’t mean I should be shamed for it. To Sheree, it’s a shame to see you thought it was appropriate to essentially dox me and invite people to attack me and ‘defend’ you. I reviewed a book you wrote and you attacked me and said horrible things. Maybe you’re not a girls girl, and actually just a mean girl.

I scroll through these other good reads reviews confused. Did we read the same book? I know I did, but the rest of you need to check.

This book has the energy of someone who constantly posts every little thing that happens to them on instagram and thinks they’re the most fascinating person to exist when their life is really mundaine.

This book is genuinely so hard to follow. The timelines of events aren’t clear, mid paragraph she’ll jump back to a memory of an event without telling you and you’re left feeling confused and whiplashed when you realise what’s going on. The constant use of metaphors and similes is exhausting, and the over explaining of people, situations and stories makes me feel like I’m being spoken to like a child.

You can add all the metaphors and adjectives in the world, it doesn’t make this book less boring. An absolute struggle to get through.

[Amani]

A painful yet beautiful memoir, documenting Sheree's metamorphosis through some of the most challenging and heartbreaking moments of her life. For any woman who was told that if they were 'good' then life would happen in all the 'right' steps then this book is for you. There is another way to live. Exquisitely written, I devoured this within a few days. A must read.

[Liana111]

Juicy is an emotional yet uplifting book that will hopefully inspire many young women to live life on their own terms and to see the beauty in both ordinary and extraordinary things.

Sheree is an incredible writer whose words and vivid descriptions transport you directly to the places she writes about, especially when she talks about her European holidays. I found myself so immersed in her words that it was difficult to put the book down.

Touching on relationships, love, loss, mourning, and fertility struggles, with dashes of humour and wisdom, it is a must-read for every young woman (and man!)

I can't wait for Sheree's next book!

[Jacqueline]

An introspective & enthralling millennial memoir exploring love, loss, identity, relationships, questioning cultural traditions and expectations and grappling with issues relating to dating, fertility, maintaining stability … Sheree comes full circle and a path of growth, learning and change is established.

[Bryce]

I enjoyed reading this book and couldn’t put it down (so many juicy tales) but also found it a bit of an enigma.

I very much appreciated the author’s raw accounts of dealing with the expectations of their life (and this was the best thing about the book for me) but I struggled to relate to the hedonistic pursuits.

[Ry]

The read of the century.

[Jananie]

Where do I even start with this?! What an excellent book - just finished it and have so much to process. Sheree’s ability to be vulnerable, authentic and grapple with so much is unmatched. The way she speaks about grief, family & friendship - so beautiful and so raw. She has an incredible way of capturing the high highs and the low lows. We are so lucky to have her write such a thing, we need more of this - single 30 something women reclaiming our narratives. Love love loved!! Made me taste tomato Europe & and want more of it - I have told Sheree to create a dua lipa style travel list.

[Caroline]

Sheree has such a way with words. Her writing is so honest and charming; at times she reflects on her life with such clarity it's almost overwhelming. I think she has a bit of a tendency to overwrite at times, and maybe exaggerate some stories but 9/10 times I loved it.

A really great memoir and a great debut.

[Nadia Kim]

the first book I've read where 2020/21 is firmly in the rearview: we've moved past the strange intensity and upheaval of those years (phew!!) through a brief period where maybe things would be better than before (yay!) but then we find ourselves in a world of absolute devastation and gaslighting (not good!!)

this book put me in mind of the dud avocado & tender is the night. 'summering in europe' seems to heighten everything: the chaos and desire and luxuriation and excess, but also the disappointment and despair.

the final section reminded me a bit of chosen family too: a story after the end of the world, about a woman who has gone through the full gamut of emotions and had to completely reframe her conception of what it means to be family, who is looking clear-eyed to the future she wants to build.

i know it's a memoir, but i couldn't help but read this book as a direct and exacting metaphor for living through 2019-2025 (and wondering what comes next). as somebody who had a completely different *plot* during that period, i still had an eerily similar *experience* of the world around me.

also: marrickville mentioned!!!

[Josie M]

I actually enjoyed this book. Very well written!

[Nico likes books]

I loved this book. I cried in the Prologue and several other places. It was such a joy to read how this woman took lemons and turned them into the juiciest lemonade. Or maybe a better way to say it would be: took some overripe tomatoes and turned them into the most delectable sugo!

Sugo contains so much: transformation, mess, patience, heat, alchemy, and unstoppable Italian grandmother energy. That's the point. You don't pretend the tomatoes aren't overripe. You cook the hell out of them until their sweetness releases and becomes the hero.

It gave me so much. I relived some of my own grief from my own futile fertility journey, so in that way it was palpable, relatable... close. Catharsis.

And I think what I was responding to was actually quite specific: the writer doesn't make the wreckage disappear. She makes a life out of it. And she takes us on the journey.

Okay. This is the landscape. What can become possible here?

Everything.

[Stephanie Youssef]

Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither was Juicy.

Sheree Joseph’s memoir takes us along with her as she traverses the globe - San Francisco, tomato Europe, a quick stopover in potato Europe, and, of course, across Sydney - collecting stories, brick by brick, to not only rediscover herself and her power amidst grief, heartbreak and a slew of unworthy boys, but also piece together a masterful debut.

The words, rich, plump and full of sweet nectar, literally drip off the page. It's beautiful and messy; pages brimming with life and adventure - yet sometimes capturing the mundaneness and simplicity of life; romantic and heartbreaking; devastating yet hopeful; flirty and vibrant; literal LAUGH OUT LOUD moments; the vivid language and evocation of religious imagery and Mesopotamian mythology, transporting you wherever Sheree is: a rave in Sydney, the streets or beaches of Marseille and Puglia, the Festa di Sant’Anna in Ischia.

Or making you contemplate whether you're Team Adrien or Team Nass… or Antoine or Freddy. Before settling on Team Sheree because (not all) men are trash.

Juicy is out July 28. Run, don't walk.

Read the full review: https://stephanieyoussef.com/2026/07/...

[Ryan Dell]

Good read. However I have one pedantic observation to make. Sheree, in different passages, uses the phrase “best friend” to refer to all the following people;
- Frankie
- Olivia
- Hugh
- Charlotte
- Clare (although to be fair this is just “one of my best friends”)
- Valeria
- Her two brothers (her “first best friends”)

I think it devalues the phrase to use it to refer to multiple people, let alone this many. It would be like an NBA season giving out eight MVP awards. I would prefer it if Sheree had designated just one of the people to be her best friend and moved all the other ones down a tier

[Chardai]

Just because I’m biased doesn’t mean I’m wrong. This is a wonderful book and i absolutely loved it.

[Reader]

Beautiful written. Full of pain, grief, humour and joy.

[Leyan K]

What a beautifully raw and vulnerable book. Thank you for sharing your story that many women can relate to. I loved this from start to finish.

[S]

Don't waste your time taking any sort of advice from Sheree Joseph. She does not have good intentions with the way she sees the world. She is a bully. Could not finish this.

[Tyler Fullerton]

Such a juicy read!! I loved this book and Sheree’s storytelling. Especially the tomato Europe era! Couldn’t put it down

[Natalia Figueroa Barroso]

Barter your potatoes for tomatoes and start squeezing the juice outta life.