Book Review: A Sorrow Named Joy
A haunting, bittersweet science fiction novella by SFINCS 1 winner, Sarah Chorn.
Continuing on with my decision to read some of the novellas from last year’s Speculative Fiction Indie Novella Championships, here we have contest winner A Sorrow Named Joy by Sarah Chorn. The cover art on this book is wonderful, and after reading, it really captures a lot of the heart of the character of Joy. Although I will freely admit that I’m a bit of an idiot. Before I realised what this book was about, I mistook the brim of her hat for a horn, and thought it was a fantasy story. Why? No idea. It’s very clearly not a horn. What’s wrong with me? Anyway, that’s enough of that. Let’s talk about this utterly beautiful novella.
Blurb
Joy desires nothing more than her husband's happiness. She spends her days creating the perfect life for him in their idyllic suburban home. Everything is neat, predictable, and in its place.
When Joy finds a picture that hints at a past she cannot remember, the facade cracks. As secrets are revealed, Joy realizes her blissful life is crumbling and to find herself, she must first lose herself.
Perfect, after all, is only an illusion.
Review
What an incredible novella this was. Absolutely beautifully written, with a bittersweet story and an excellent example of the power of foreshadowing. I loved this one, I cried at this one. It all starts off rather mundane, and you get the sense that Joy, the protagonist, is super particular and loves order. And even her reaction to something being wrong seems a bit out of proportion, but then you start to notice little things. It all starts to fall into place in your mind, and you figure out what’s going on fairly quickly. This isn’t a failing of the book—on the contrary, it’s one of its strengths, because the foreshadowing and hints are done so well and in a really subtle way. It made me feel smart for noticing them!
There’s not a great deal of worldbuilding in A Sorrow Named Joy, but it doesn’t need it. It’s set in a very contemporary, ordinary and familiar world, or at least some time in the near-future. The sci-fi elements were handled very well, although if you got really nitpicky you could say that it’s a bit like those urban fantasies where there’s a magical underworld that’s somehow gone completely unnoticed and whose presence hasn’t changed a single thing about the ordinary world. But that’s just in the sense that society as a whole might be noticeably different from now by the time that the technology on display could come into play. But like I said, that’s super nitpicky. The story doesn’t need to go into any of that, and would have suffered for doing so. It’s all about the utterly sublime character work. There’s not an ounce of waste here.
Joy is wonderful, and her growth and change during her journey to discover herself is heartfelt and optimistic. I loved how even though she went through great change by the end, some aspects of who she was before filtered through to who she became. Not everything was abandoned in the change. I think that’s pretty poignant, because it would have been so easy to make her totally reject everything she was. I’m sure there’s so much more that could be unpacked from this than I can do here. Mike was a great character as well, and his growth and the realisation of his mistakes was compelling. The ending was marvellous.
I highly recommend this novella to everyone. The sci-fi elements are mild, there’s no confusing scientific terminology. It’s a story about two wonderfully realised characters, and I think it has that element of universal relatability that would fit in whatever your genre preferences are.
