Sad Girl Hours by Anna Zoe Quirke
Rating: 
Nothing is perfect, and as such, the reviews in this blog are chaotic. My main aim is to share my thoughts, joy and opinions on a book, not make a publication perfect review. This blog endorses authenticity, showing up and joy over perfection.
I can’t remember the exact reason I bought this one, but it felt like it’d be my kind of book. A good dose of cuteness, some sadness and lots of emotions. And I was right, this was a delight to read (despite dealing with heavy topics) and it felt like a warm hug or eating a nice apple pie fresh from the oven (not at burn your mouth temperature but at good temperature).
The story has two points of view, one from Saffron who suffers from seasonal affective disorder (SAD) who is dreading autumn and winter coming. She had to take time off the previous year from uni and can’t afford to do it again or it will make becoming an astrophysicist difficult or impossible. And also she’s somehow managed to keep it secret from all her friends and the people online that follow her for her short bubbly videos on astrophysics in a way that is easy to understand. She’s scared that if people know, they’ll dismiss it like her family does or they’ll stop liking her. And then she meets Nell.
Nell is our other point of view, who is proudly autistic, studying to become a poet, and a lover of autumn and winter and all the coziness they can provide. So she becomes determined to show Saffron that they’re not bad seasons with a bucket list of things to do to showcase how good it is to have the seasons come.
Of course as they start doing things like jumping on piles of leaves or lighting candles and having a cosy day in, Saffron and Nell both slowly start to develop feelings for each other but neither is sure of what exactly is going. And they both are trying to balance their own personal issues with having a fun time, becoming better friends and university.
There is a lot of fun but also some seriousness on caring for yourself and also how others care for you. I think this was a lovely little book to read and I’d recommend it as a nice autumn read. Do be mindful that it discusses SAD, family not taking this into account and being mean and not helpful, and obviously the spirals that can happen in your head about it.