[A] <b>raw, funny and untidily generous novel</b>... Ottila belongs to the great sisterhood of the Female Fuck-Up. Not the eroticised trainwrecks male writers love to invent, but the real-deal ones like Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag... <b>As much as you’re rooting for Ottila to get her man, that’s not the point; the point is whether she can gain the moral wisdom to live a better kind of life.</b> <b>She’s an </b><b>Emma steeped in ethanol.</b>
- Sarah Ditum, Guardian
This lovely, quirky novel <b>will appeal to fans of Miranda July and Sheila Heti</b>.
- Sarra Manning, Red
I loved the novel’s strong sense of place and the picture it paints of a sparky, inner-city singleton trying to stay on the straight and narrow. <b>Funny, bleak and heart-warming, sometimes all at the same time.</b>
- Wendy Holden, Daily Mail
<b>Balances irony and earnestness perfectly</b>, offering both a heartbreakingly sincere quest for happiness and an acerbic intolerance of hollow quick-fixes... <b>Anneliese Mackintosh’s latest work is positively radiant.</b>
The Skinny
<b>Impressive and challenging</b>… This debut novel is every bit as <b>assured, honest and innovative</b> as its predecessor… <i>So Happy It Hurts</i> is something of a high-wire act, <b>laugh-out-loud funny</b> at times but also <b>so emotionally honest that it sometimes feels like a punch to the guts</b>… <b>As sharp a novel about 21st-century living as you’ll find anywhere.</b>
Big Issue
<b>A cleverly constructed story, full of trauma, playfulness and wisdom. When portraying fallible lives, Mackintosh’s writing never flinches.</b>
Jason Donald
<b>Searing… Mackintosh manages to write a book that no one else could pull off</b> with all the same weird panache, peeling back the surface of her main character to expose all the blood and guts and mess beneath.
Diva