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Sweet Sorrow

David Nicholls

3.84 · Rating details · 8,777 ratings · 991 reviews

One life-changing summer
Charlie meets Fran...

In 1997, Charlie Lewis is the kind of boy you don't remember in the school photograph. His exams have not gone well. At home he is looking after his father, when surely it should be the other way round, and if he thinks about the future at all, it is with a kind of dread.

Then Fran Fisher bursts into his life and despite himself, ...more

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Paperback, 405 pages

Published July 9th 2019 by Hachette

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· 8,777 ratings · 991 reviews

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Sep 27, 2020 Richard rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: current-lit-uk

David Nicholls, the Booker nominated author and screenwriter, in Sweet Sorrow, has written a tender, realistic and very funny story about the trauma of first love.
Charlie is a typical 16 year old, leaving the school gates for the last time, blinking uncertainly in the hard light of the big world outside.
He has the odd flash of wit and is moderately good looking but Charlie is pretty ordinary in most respects - mucking about with his mates, full of bravado, messily experimenting with alchohol and ...more

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Jul 10, 2019 Charlotte May rated it really liked it

Shelves: contemporary-recent, romance, illness-mental-terminal

Bittersweet. 💖

I enjoyed this most recent book by David Nicholls, I loved One Day and so was feeling pretty confident.

Charlie lives in a small town in Surrey (or Sussex) not far from London, but far enough away. He’s just completed his GCSE exams and now faces the endless summer.

He is a typical average teenage boy, his friends are dicks but he never stands up to them. His father has severe depression since Charlie’s mother left them and he tries to spend as little time at home as possible.

Whil ...more

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Sep 02, 2019 Peter Boyle rated it really liked it

I remember the last time I bought a David Nicholls novel. I brought Us to the counter and the woman at the till said: "Oh! Do men read him too?" I wasn't quite sure what to make of that. Maybe it's down to the fact that One Day, Nicholls' biggest hit, has a sweeping romance at its core and therefore his work is unsuitable for us fellas. I suppose I should have purchased the latest Bear Grylls Survival Guide instead.

Well I'm a David Nicholls fan and I'm not ashamed to admit it. He writes so perce I remember the last time I bought a David Nicholls novel. I brought Us to the counter and the woman at the till said: "Oh! Do men read him too?" I wasn't quite sure what to make of that. Maybe it's down to the fact that One Day, Nicholls' biggest hit, has a sweeping romance at its core and therefore his work is unsuitable for us fellas. I suppose I should have purchased the latest Bear Grylls Survival Guide instead.

Well I'm a David Nicholls fan and I'm not ashamed to admit it. He writes so perceptively about family and relationships, and his dialogue is always sharp and funny. Sweet Sorrow continues with this winning formula. The story is set in the summer of 1997, in a small Sussex town. School has just finished and sixteen-year-old Charlie Lewis is at a loose end. His parents have recently split up and his Dad is depressed, so he can't bear to spend any time around the house. On a bike ride one afternoon, he stumbles upon an amateur acting troupe who are preparing to stage a production of Romeo and Juliet in a few weeks time. They beg Charlie to join them but he thinks it's just for wimps and nerds (plus he's afraid of being ridiculed by his mates). However, the luminous Fran Fisher catches his eye and he decides to go along for one day just to see if he can ask her out. So begins a unforgettable summer in Charlie's life, one that he will often think about even as he advances into middle age.

Charlie might give the impression that he's carefree, but he's a worrier. He's terrified that he'll come home some evening to find his father passed out on the floor after an overdose, and this broke my heart. He shouldn't have to think about things like that at his age. At least when he's when up to no good with his friends or chasing girls it distracts him for a while. His description of his first kiss made me laugh:

"I had never been more aware that the tongue was a muscle, a powerful skinless muscle like the arm of a starfish, and when my tongue tried to fight back against Sharon’s they had wrestled like drunks trying to squeeze past each other in a corridor."

Charlie had been down in the down in the dumps at the start of the summer, unsure of his future, but the unexpected possibility of a romance with Fran gives him hope, and a completely new outlook on life:

"If I could be with Fran Fisher, if she could somehow accept me and all my past faults, all the squalor and weirdness and worry, then in turn I would become a better version of myself, a version so excellent and exemplary that it was practically new. I had not been the person I wanted to be, but there was no reason why this couldn’t change."

Maybe the story is a bit too familiar for me to give it the full five stars. But you don't really read David Nicholls for the cliffhangers or the surprise twists. You read him for the humour, for the special insight into love and relationships, for the warm glow you feel in the presence of his wonderful characters. I'll be first in line for his next novel and the bookseller can mock me all she wants. ...more

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Dec 23, 2019 Paromjit rated it liked it

Shelves: netgalley, contemporary-fiction, romance, ya

David Nicholls writes a sweet, nostalgic coming of age story of first love, a heady affair composed of teenage angst, insecurities, fear, jealousies, fraught emotions and all the mass of confusion that besets the teenage soul at the tender age of sixteen. In the present, Charlie is preparing to get married, but can't help looking back to 1997, school had broken, aware he has not done well in his exams, an endless summer lies in front of him, unsure of what the future holds for him but feeling th ...more

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Jul 21, 2020 Dolors rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: Lovers of good music

Shelves: read-in-2020, giveaways, netgalley

I had forgotten how refreshing Nicholl’s writing style can be. Like in the previous novels I have read by him, there are plenty of musical references from the 80s to make one’s heart beat with nostalgia while a silly, unconscious smile is permanently planted on your face.
Nicholls knows precisely how to do that. How to involve the reader, almost in a casual way that breathes out depth. Depth of feeling, depth in character construction, depth in building a story that goes back and forth in time to I had forgotten how refreshing Nicholl’s writing style can be. Like in the previous novels I have read by him, there are plenty of musical references from the 80s to make one’s heart beat with nostalgia while a silly, unconscious smile is permanently planted on your face.
Nicholls knows precisely how to do that. How to involve the reader, almost in a casual way that breathes out depth. Depth of feeling, depth in character construction, depth in building a story that goes back and forth in time to recreate the situations that brought the main protagonist to the present time.

“Parting is such sweet sorrow”. says Juliet to Romeo when they are saying goodnight in Shakespeare’s famous play. What an adept title for a story about first love, that violent and memorable kind of love that usually burns itself out.
Charlie meets Fran accidentally one summer and he embarks on a quest very unlike himself for the sake of being close to her. During the course of the hot season, Charlie will rehearse in an amateur theatre company playing Benvolio while Fran plays Juliet, and as weeks go by and he gets to dig deep into Shakespeare’s lines, he realizes that he has fallen seriously in love for the first time at seventeen.

As many teenagers of his age, Charlie is lost and has no clear vision of himself. His parents have recently separated, his father is depressed and drinks way too much, money is always short. A couple of unwise, reckless decisions will define the future of Charlie and Fran, and a very pleased reader will take a peek into their lives twenty years after their initial encounter.

Indeed, I will say it once more. Nicholls knows how to pen his stories. There is plenty of intelligent banter, like in Shakespeare’s plays, also sincere empathy for people who have to make their own way, fighting against the odds, to become what they are meant to be.
Emotional without being sugary, light without being superficial, Nicholls unfolds a multilayered story about the many facets of love: first love, familial love, mature, bored love and the kind of love that true friendship irradiates, helping us at crucial moments.
His books sound like real life with the perfect soundtrack of good literature referenced in the right context, and one can’t help but dance at the tune of his characters, and smile to see how they grow to become reflections of what we were... and what we still might be.
Thumbs up, Mr.Nicholls!

I was given a free copy by the publisher of this novel in Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
...more

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Mar 22, 2020 Phrynne rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 5000-2020, middle-earth-challenge

I have changed my rating several times while sitting here trying to decide what to write about this book. I am dithering between three and four stars but I am going to go with ………...three.

Basically it was a pleasant read. The characters were okay if a bit annoying. Oh except for Charlie's mother who was awful. Charlie himself had been dealt a very rough deal and meeting Fran was probably the saving of him.

Mostly it was a fairly normal coming of age tale interspersed with lots of Shakespeare, wh ...more

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Apr 11, 2020 Carolyn rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: netgalley, 2020, netgalley-2020

In 1997 sixteen year old Charlie Lewis has just finished his last year at school in a small town in Sussex. It's not been a good year for him. His mother has left the marriage, moving in with another man and his two daughters, taking Charlie's younger sister with her, but leaving Charlie alone with his depressed and recently bankrupt father. Charlie knows he's done badly in his GCSE exams and won't be going on to sixth form college and apart from a few hours working at a service station doesn't ...more

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Mar 23, 2020 PattyMacDotComma rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-adult, aa, 5000-books-2020-lor, arc-netgalley-done, ya-new-adult, kindle, 2020-a-z-aussie-readers

3.5★
“. . . and it occurred to me then, just as it does now, that the greatest lie that age tells about youth is that it’s somehow free of care, worry or fear.

Good God, doesn’t anyone remember?”

Sweet sorrow this is – a tender, nostalgic reminiscence of Charlie Lewis, now in his thirties, about his 16-year-old self - not sporty, not a nerd, not an outcast, not handsome, not ugly, and not exceptional in any way. But also not without friends, though his are hardly a gang. They’re just a loose bunch ...more

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May 14, 2020 Catherine Woodward rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: physical-arcs

*Many thanks to Goodreads, Mariner, and David Nicholls for this ARC! Now available as of 8.4!*

David Nicholls definitely has found his passion as a writer, and it lies in exploring the concept of nostalgia and first love. I was really excited to read this one after thoroughly enjoying One Day, but I feel as though that book is better executed and dives a lot deeper than this one for me. Charlie takes his readers back through an important summer for him, the last summer before college, and delves ...more

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Aug 11, 2019 Joachim Stoop rated it really liked it

4,5

Let's talk movies and TV (and food):

Imagine the sitcom Friends was unpopular and quite unknown and you just discovered and binge watched it. Of course you want to convince others to check it out. And now, go back to reality and think about what a major succes it really was and still is, and how no real self respecting TV-expert would name it as his or her all-time favourite show. That's perhaps the only downside of that big a succes. Same counts for some beststelling authors. In my opinion bo 4,5

Let's talk movies and TV (and food):

Imagine the sitcom Friends was unpopular and quite unknown and you just discovered and binge watched it. Of course you want to convince others to check it out. And now, go back to reality and think about what a major succes it really was and still is, and how no real self respecting TV-expert would name it as his or her all-time favourite show. That's perhaps the only downside of that big a succes. Same counts for some beststelling authors. In my opinion books like A ladder to the sky by John Boyne and One day + this Sweet sorrow by David Nicholls are underrated in the Literature-with-capital-L-booklovers-arty-land. It will sell, big time! But will Sweet sorrow be longlisted, awarded or even praised by the topnotch Goodreads-circle?

'Sweet sorrow' in cinematic terms is mixing Dead poet's society with Boyhood and the Before sunrise-trilogy. While there is enough drama and tragedy going on, there is always soms lightness to it as in these movies. For example the first pages of Sweet sorrow where we join a 16-year old boy at the start of this clearly everlasting summer in a small town announcing a struggle of his longing for lifechanging experiences against infinite boredom, could have been written by Marilynne Robinson or Ann Pratchett (were it not for the fact that Nicholls throws in the YA-wit of a John Green at his best).

But here is the catch: I can imagine readers who dislike the sweetness and the constant quest for puns and tender humor. And I know: reading with a permanent smile or grin can hurt your cheeks after a while. So it's possible others see this as a trap which to avoid. The way the coin flips is difficult to predict. A good example in my case was my adoration for Frederik Bachman's Beartown (1) and my total dislike of his Us against you (Beartown 2). The second being just too sirupy and totally fatiguing in trying too hard to give me goosebumps.

And while Sweet sorrow sometimes felt as if you sit in your living room with an ideal temperature in a perfect sofa with the right amount of sunrays entering while watching a Sundance movie and eating nostalgic candy, it was totally worth the tootache.
But, my highbrow GR-friend, I won't hold it against you if you give it 1 star. ...more

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Dec 28, 2019 Algernon (Darth Anyan) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, 2019

... the greatest lie that age tells about youth is that it’s somehow free of care, worry or fear.
Good God, doesn’t anyone remember?

I’ve been traveling on a bumpy (literary) road in 2019, with many detours into other hobbies and quite a few potholes along the way, but at least I saved the best for last. After reading “One Day”, I knew David Nicholls was my kinda writer, so I saved his new novel for the winter holidays and I was not disappointed. I’m not sure that I can, or even that I should, f ...more

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Jul 27, 2019 Anni rated it it was amazing

'First love is like a stupid pop song that you hear and you think, well this is all I will ever want to listen to, it's got everything. 'Course, we wouldn't put it on now. We're too hard and experienced and sophisticated. But when it comes on the radio, well, it's still a good song."

This author never puts a foot wrong in the 'bittersweet' novel genre, as far as I'm concerned. And here, David Nicholls expertly sidesteps any hint of sickly schmaltz - which is quite a feat when writing about the ro ...more

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Mar 28, 2019 Margaret James rated it really liked it

I was sent an advance reading copy of this new book, and I must admit that after loving One Day, then finding Us rather disappointing, I started reading Sweet Sorrow with a feeling of trepidation. But, after a slogging through the first few chapters of set-up, it hooked me, and I was soon going to bed early so I could read more of Charlie Lewis's most engaging story.

Charlie is sixteen, has big problems at home, and is failing at school. One morning he goes out on his bike and encounters a group ...more

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Aug 06, 2019 Rebecca rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2019-second-half, newbury-library, reviewed-for-blog

The title is a snippet from Romeo and Juliet, which provides the setup and subject matter for this novel about first love during the golden summer of 1997, when Charlie Lewis and Fran Fisher are 16. Charlie thinks he’s way too cool for the thespians, but if he wants to keep seeing Fran he has to join the Full Fathom Five Theatre Co-operative for the five weeks of rehearsals leading up to performances. Besides, he doesn’t have anything better to do – besides watching his dad get drunk on the couc The title is a snippet from Romeo and Juliet, which provides the setup and subject matter for this novel about first love during the golden summer of 1997, when Charlie Lewis and Fran Fisher are 16. Charlie thinks he’s way too cool for the thespians, but if he wants to keep seeing Fran he has to join the Full Fathom Five Theatre Co-operative for the five weeks of rehearsals leading up to performances. Besides, he doesn’t have anything better to do – besides watching his dad get drunk on the couch and scamming the petrol station where he works nights, that is. Charlie starts off as the most robotic Benvolio imaginable, but Fran helps bring him up to scratch with her private tutoring (which is literal as well as a euphemism).

Glimpses of the present day are an opportunity for nostalgia and regret, as Charlie/Nicholls coyly insists that first love means nothing: “love is boring. Love is familiar and commonplace for anyone not taking part, and first love is just a gangling, glandular incarnation of the same. … first love wasn’t real love anyway, just a fraught and feverish, juvenile imitation of it.” I enjoyed the teenage boy perspective (Charlie makes a good narrator) and the theatre company shenanigans well enough, but was bored with the endless back story about Charlie’s family: his father’s record shops went bankrupt; his mother left him for another golf club colleague and took his sister; he and his depressed father are slobby roommates subsisting on takeaways and booze; blah blah blah.

It’s possible that had I read or seen R&J more recently, I would have spotted some clever parallels. Honestly? I’d cut 100+ pages (it should really be closer to 300 pages than 400) and repackage this as YA fiction. If you’re looking for lite summer fare reminiscent of Rachel Joyce and, yes, One Day, this will slip down easily, but I feel like I need to get better about curating my library stack and weeding out new releases that will be readable but forgettable. I really liked Us, which explains why I was willing to take another chance on Nicholls.

Note: There is a pretty bad anachronism here: a reference to watching The Matrix, which wasn’t released until 1999 (p. 113, “Cinnamon” chapter). Also a reference to Hobby Lobby, which as far as I know doesn’t exist in the UK (it’s Hobbycraft here) (p. 205, “Masks” chapter). Perhaps they jumped the gun in getting this ready for its U.S. release?

Favorite summery passage: “This summer’s a bastard, isn’t it? Sun comes out, sky’s blue if you’re lucky and suddenly there are all these preconceived ideas of what you should be doing, lying on a beach or jumping off a rope swing into the river or having a picnic with all your amazing mates, sitting on a blanket in a meadow and eating strawberries and laughing in that mad way, like in the adverts. It’s never like that, it’s just six weeks of feeling like you’re in the wrong place ... and you’re missing out. That’s why summer’s so sad – because you’re meant to be so happy. Personally, I can’t wait to get my tights back on, turn the central heating up. At least in winter you’re allowed to be miserable” (Fran) ...more

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Jan 02, 2020 Mandy rated it did not like it

I couldn’t even finish this trite and banal coming-of-age tale – although I did skip to the end to see what happened and to find out if I wanted to persevere. I didn’t. Tedious self-indulgent ramblings from a tedious self-indulgent teenager looking back on the big romance of his youth. Nothing and no one engaged me, I wasn’t interested in the narrative, such as it was, and so I gave up. Unconvincing and uninteresting.

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Aug 08, 2020 Sharon Metcalf rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: netgalley, 2020, owned

I read One Day by David Nicholls five years ago and I still think of it as one of my favorite romance novels. I also recall it as a very sad and ugly cry inducing book yet I loved it.    Soon after I went back and tried another novel by this author and couldn't have been more disappointed.     Five years on I read the blurb for Sweet Sorrow and figured I would give David Nicholls another try as this one sounded similar to the one I'd loved.    It turns out this was a great decision.    I love I read One Day by David Nicholls five years ago and I still think of it as one of my favorite romance novels. I also recall it as a very sad and ugly cry inducing book yet I loved it.    Soon after I went back and tried another novel by this author and couldn't have been more disappointed.     Five years on I read the blurb for Sweet Sorrow and figured I would give David Nicholls another try as this one sounded similar to the one I'd loved.    It turns out this was a great decision.    I loved it, and though there were tough times for the characters there were no ugly tears for me and from beginning to end I was captivated.

For all intents and purposes Sweet Sorrow was the story of sixteen year old Charlie Lewis.   Granted it was his version of events as a teen boy, reflecting back with the benefit of twenty years of life experience.   In his mid thirties Charlie is about to be married for the first time but he's been invited to a reunion which is highly likely to put him in touch with Fran Fisher his first love.    This possibility puts him in a reminiscing frame of mind.    Thoughts of himself at sixteen and about to finish school.    Sixteen and full of self doubt and lacking confidence.    Sixteen and overflowing with emotions and insecurities about his family life - the shock and disappointment of his parents separation, worry about his fathers bankruptcy, anxiety induced insomnia and to some extent resentment about his fathers mental state.    But also sixteen and making a new set of friends.    Sixteen and stepping out of his comfort zone and into a Shakespeare theatre production.     Sixteen and learning to trust.   Sixteen and making mistakes but stepping up and finding a semblance of maturity to deal with the medley of emotions.   Sixteen and falling in love for the first time.

David Nicholls wrote in such a way that I was right there with Charlie experiencing the highs and lows with him.    He captured the emotions perfectly, the uncertainties of youth but also the lighter moments, the absolute bliss of falling in love for the first time.   It was infused with humor and ended on a feel good note of positivity.   It was a wonderful reading experience and one I can highly recommend.

Thanks to David Nicholls, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Mariner Books and NetGalley for the opportunity of reading this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review which it was my pleasure to provide. I'll be rating this as 4.5 stars on Goodreads. ...more

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Aug 10, 2019 Andrea rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction-foreign-locale, city-library

A good book, but not up there with my favourites from this author.

Charlie Lewis has just finished his high school exams. He knows he hasn't done well, but he doesn't entirely blame it on his parents for separating during his exam prep... With a long, aimless summer stretched in front of him, and wanting to be out of the house, away from his depressed, unemployed dad, Charlie spends his days cycling the countryside and reading through his father's collection of books. It's while he's laying in a ...more

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Aug 04, 2019 Jess rated it liked it

If you've never read any David Nicholls, this is a great book. Atmospheric, funny, well written, heartwarming, lovely. The problem is that if you've read all his other books, it reads like a David Nicholls Paint-By-Numbers, or whatever the book-version of that would be...

Fran is a great character, but I've come to the sudden, horrid realisation that she's exactly the same as every main female character in every book by David Nicholls. Though his main male characters are marginally more varied, i ...more

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Apr 22, 2020 Marianne rated it it was amazing

“In the chaos of our family’s self-destruction he had quietly and unassumingly made himself present and though I could hardly recall a conversation that might be considered personal or honest, in the strange, mute semaphore of teenage boys he’d communicated a sense of care and somehow passed on the message to the others, an unspoken command to be, if not kind , then not actively cruel.”

Sweet Sorrow is the fifth novel by British author, David Nicholls. It was mid-1997, school was done, and sixtee “In the chaos of our family’s self-destruction he had quietly and unassumingly made himself present and though I could hardly recall a conversation that might be considered personal or honest, in the strange, mute semaphore of teenage boys he’d communicated a sense of care and somehow passed on the message to the others, an unspoken command to be, if not kind , then not actively cruel.”

Sweet Sorrow is the fifth novel by British author, David Nicholls. It was mid-1997, school was done, and sixteen-year-old Charlie Lewis was resigned to an unpromising future, waiting for the rest of his life to begin. Meanwhile, there was a long summer to endure, living with his father, Brian, the currently unemployed former owner of a chain of failed record shops. By default, as the older child, Charlie was left to look after his father when his mother left to live with her lover, taking along his sister.

“I knew from science fiction, rather than from Science lessons, that time behaves differently depending on your location, and from a sixteen-year-old’s lower bunk at the end of June in 1997, it moved more slowly than anywhere else in the cosmos.”

Brian Lewis was now often a sad, Mad Dad (chronically, clinically depressed), and sixteen-year-old Charlie was frightened, furious and resentful of the father he’d formerly connected so well with: he went out on his bike as often as possible.

“Boredom was our natural state but loneliness was taboo and so I strained for the air of a loner, a maverick, unknowable and self-contained, riding with no hands. But a great effort is required not to appear lonely when you are alone, happy when you’re not.”

On one of these rides, Charlie found himself quite unintentionally rehearsing Romeo and Juliet with Full Fathom Five Theatre Cooperative on a hint of a possibility of a promise from the lovely Fran Fisher, playing Juliet. It was something he kept meticulously separate from his school mates, whose ridicule could not be borne, but which he eventually realised was enjoyable for more reasons than Fran’s proximity.

Few authors can match Nicholls for portrayal of the kind of hopeless male who might show a bit of promise but ultimately excels in mediocrity: “Not admired but not despised, not adored but not feared; I was not a bully, though I knew a fair few, but did not intervene or place myself between the pack and the victim, because I wasn’t brave either. I neither conformed nor rebelled, collaborated nor resisted; I stayed out of trouble without getting into anything else. Comedy was our great currency and while I was not a class clown, neither was I witless” and “in photos of myself from that time, I’m reminded of those early incarnations of a cartoon character, the prototypes that resemble the later version but are in some way out of proportion, not quite right” are examples.
Nicholls gives the reader a moving tale of first love with a protagonist who will strike a chord with anyone who can remember their teens, can remember agonising over every word, overthinking every gesture. There’s plenty of humour, some of it a little bleak, but also some lump-in-the-throat moments. A beautiful read.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
...more

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Jul 22, 2020 ʚϊɞ Shelley's ʚϊɞ Book Nook rated it really liked it · review of another edition

What a wonderful book. The author's words made me laugh, smile, get angry and even cry through the whole thing. David Nicholls really made me feel every bit of what Charlie was going through during entire book. Fran really took Charlie on quite the journey in this story. With characters so well drawn you can picture them in your head. With heart and soul, love and heartbreak...what a delightful tale.

This book lifted my spirits and just I wanted to keep reading until I found out what would happen ...more

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Jul 25, 2019 Brendan rated it it was ok

While I was reading this book I kept trying to think of the right adjective for it. Conventional? Bland? Square? Yes, they all fit but don't quite capture the essence I'm searching for. The best I can come up with is 'nice', as used in the negative sense. As in 'too nice'. When you say someone's too nice, you really mean they're boring or irritating in a way that's somehow connected to their niceness. This book is too nice.

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Aug 21, 2019 Laura rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Book reviews on www.snazzybooks.com

Having eagerly anticipated the new novel by one of my favourite authors, David Nicholls, I hoped Sweet Sorrow would live up to the excellent standard of his previous novels. I'm glad to say it does; it's a beautifully written book that takes us through 16 year old Charlie's summer as he waits for his GCSE results. So in the sense of the characters in this book, it's obvious that they are very different to those in his previous novels, but no less likable.

For t ...more

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Aug 10, 2019 Gumble's Yard rated it liked it

Shelves: 2019

The book starts in 1997, on 16 year old Charlie Lewis’s last day at his Surrey/Sussex border town comprehensive school. Charlie is a largely invisible student – tagging along with a gang of three other boys who are the classroom clowns. His anger at his Mother leaving him with his father and at the lethargy and depression of the latter, already struggling from the collapse of the family record shop chain and his earlier saxophone player career – was played out in a complete failure to study for The book starts in 1997, on 16 year old Charlie Lewis’s last day at his Surrey/Sussex border town comprehensive school. Charlie is a largely invisible student – tagging along with a gang of three other boys who are the classroom clowns. His anger at his Mother leaving him with his father and at the lethargy and depression of the latter, already struggling from the collapse of the family record shop chain and his earlier saxophone player career – was played out in a complete failure to study for his GCSEs. As a result while others plan careers or college – he faces the Summer (and the future behind it) with a quiet dread – taking a casual job at a petrol station where he starts a low level fraud on scratch cards (which offer cash or cheap glassware prizes).

Early in the Summer holidays a girl Fran Fisher literally runs into him. She attends a local arty/hippy school which his school regularly fights (and defeats). He is immediately attracted to her but to his horror finds that she (together with 3 children from his own school’s drama society with which he would never normally mix) is involved in the Full Fathom Five Theatre Co-Operative Society which based at a local large house plan to put on a show of Romeo and Juliet with local students (boosted by some Am-Dram players), building up to the play via a series of Theatre Play and Improv Sessions.

Fran hints she will consider a date with him if he joins the players – initially to play Sampson but then asked to cover Mercutio. Fran (playing Juliet) is a natural actor, Charlie is not – but via Fran’s coaching, by seeing over time how Shakespeare’s words seem to capture his own emotions as he and Fran embark on a tentative relationship, and by discovering a sense of community among the players despite his clear differences to them, he gradually works his way into the play.

The first person book is mainly written in 1997, but also includes modern sections, Charlie about to be married is invited by his best man (themselves one of the Romeo and Juliet cast) to a Full Fathom Five reunion.

Overall a gentle and enjoyable book which is perhaps too slow and too long – interestingly Nicholls had intended originally to make it a novella and while one can imagine his publisher’s horror at that idea (novellas not normally featuring as must-read beach books), it would I think have made a better book.

A clear attempt to return to the romance, youth and nostalgia of One Day (after the more mature “Us”) but perhaps without the same magic (albeit One Day was always going to be very hard to follow).

A book explicitly designed to capture first young love as well as the sense of bewilderment that comes with being 16 and unsure of one’s future and which therefore entirely failed to resonate for me, one of (to use Charlie’s expression) the Book Token kids.

...more

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Sep 12, 2019 ALPHAreader rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I am so deeply obsessed with everything that David Nicholls writes, a new book from him is like coming home or catching up with old friends.

All his books are destined to become well-worn copies. His latest is ‘Sweet Sorrow’ and I’ve absolutely fallen in love with it. It has the sharp coming-of-age humour from ‘Starter For Ten’, mixed with the heady poignancy of first love that ‘One Day’ gave us - it’s the story of 16-year-old Charlie Lewis who meets Fran Fisher one summer, and will never be the ...more

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Jul 04, 2020 Gemma rated it liked it · review of another edition

This was a sweet coming of age story. A nice read but not as good as I had expected.
I found it quite funny in places and by the end felt the story was pleasantly concluded.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

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Nov 05, 2020 Hally rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

4.5

This is my first David Nicholls book. Until recently I associated Nicholls with Nick Hornby, whom I associated with About a Boy, which made me think of Hugh Grant and although I don't particularly dislike Hugh Grant I've never really wanted him anywhere near my reading material which, I guess, makes me a bit of a book snob. Wanting to read more commercially, I found myself reaching for Sweet Sorrow, opening it at the first page and promptly bursting into tears on reading the epigraph; a Carso 4.5

This is my first David Nicholls book. Until recently I associated Nicholls with Nick Hornby, whom I associated with About a Boy, which made me think of Hugh Grant and although I don't particularly dislike Hugh Grant I've never really wanted him anywhere near my reading material which, I guess, makes me a bit of a book snob. Wanting to read more commercially, I found myself reaching for Sweet Sorrow, opening it at the first page and promptly bursting into tears on reading the epigraph; a Carson McCullers quote (one about belonging. It had been a particularly lonely and misunderstood-feeling day). McCullers is perfection and gets me every time. David Nicholls had slyly dragged me in.

I've never been attracted to books that are described as 'funny' but Sweet Sorrow is funny in the wryly observant way that soothed the book-snob in me (who will now be evicted). Even the cringy, less subtle parts were good because this is a book about teenagers and let's face it being a teen was, unbearably, cringy.

This is a coming-of-age story following Charlie, a lost and average teenage boy whose family-life has recently gone to shit, and whose group of laddish mates are pretty typically awful. Charlie gets embroiled in an AmDram production of Romeo and Juliet after bumping into and getting all heart-eyed over Fran Fisher, a member of the group who is cast in the role of Juliet. Now thematically, and in life, the whole AmDram thing has never attracted me in the slightest. And Nicholls initially mocks it, through Charlie's p.o.v; the whole vibe of this performance group made me shrivel up a bit inside. But being a small and important part of something! A cog in a wheel. That has, and does, and will continue to attract me. That feeling of being anchored and purposeful, something to stop you floating away...

Whilst the theatre kids that Charlie befriends are kind of annoying, Nicholls treats both them, and Charlie's problematic laddish schoolmates, with just the right touch of compassion. And part of growing up is that collecting of different experiences, that opening up to new people and opportunities. I disagree with readers who have said this book is too slow. Charlie's character development is gratifying and would have been unrealistic if it was any faster, although what better time to be porous and changing than in the summer holidays after leaving compulsory education?

Read it for the nostalgia, for the truthfulness about mental health, for the vagaries of life and for the warmth found in all the normal stuff. This isn't necessarily a ground-breaking story but that's the point. We all felt like our first love was stronger than anything anyone has ever felt, and however hard we try to put things in perspective we feel our own demons strongest of all (especially so in our teens). This book is one person's story. A chronicle of their loves and fears and disappointments. We all have those things. Reading it made me feel part of something in the way I was obviously craving; part of life, as a person with a story to tell just like everyone else. ...more

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Oct 10, 2019 Gayatri Saikia | per_fictionist rated it really liked it

Sweet Sorrow is the kind of book that makes you fall in love with the story as well as the characters and mostly importantly the author.It was my first David Nicholls and it definitely won't be my last.

The story follows the journey of Charlie, a ridiculously normal boy, the kind who doesn't stand out in high school. As Charlie struggles between accepting the turbulent relationship of his parents, his slowly disconcerting relationship with his sister Maggie and taking his first step onto adulthoo ...more

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Apr 07, 2019 Rosanna Threakall rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2019-releases

One of my all time faves. Unforgettable.

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Jul 24, 2020 Sabrina rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Did not like this book. Unfortunately Intrínsecos been sending some books that I am not the biggest fan of.

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Jul 10, 2019 Emma (escapetothebookshelf) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Nicholls' writing is really something else, he is an incredible storyteller and this book is a wonderful display of his talent. The story follows a boy named Charlie throughout the summer after leaving school. He has family troubles at home and knows that he flunked his exams, but his summer takes a different turn when he bumps into a girl named Fran Fisher. Fran is part of a group putting on a production of Romeo and Juliet and Charlie ends up involved in the group also, primarily only to get c Nicholls' writing is really something else, he is an incredible storyteller and this book is a wonderful display of his talent. The story follows a boy named Charlie throughout the summer after leaving school. He has family troubles at home and knows that he flunked his exams, but his summer takes a different turn when he bumps into a girl named Fran Fisher. Fran is part of a group putting on a production of Romeo and Juliet and Charlie ends up involved in the group also, primarily only to get closer to Fran. It is a story of first love, largely in a romantic sense, but also in relation to family and friendships which adds even more depth to this story.

Firstly, I must emphasise how well this story is written. If you have read anything else by Nicholls you'll know how descriptive and intelligent his writing is, and Sweet Sorrow is no different. He expertly captures the confusing atmosphere of the summer after leaving school and the range of emotions that teenagers go through. The uniqueness of a first love is beautifully portrayed and I particularly liked the ending where we had a glimpse at Charlie's current life, many years on. Nicholls also explores a variety of feelings that teenagers have towards their parents, particularly when parents are having problems of their own. There was a very interesting dynamic of responsibility and care between Charlie and his Dad - I think that this was actually my favourite aspect of the story.

However, for me, I never really had that strong first love feeling when I was younger and so I do find it difficult to relate to stories that have such a focus. I think that this hindered my ability to really connect with Charlie and Fran. I also remember feeling very bored and sometimes quite anxious during summers between school terms. Nicholls' writing was so effective that I felt transported back to those times, but I didn't necessarily enjoy this because of the feelings that I remember. I really must highlight that this is NOT a criticism of the book at all as I recognise that this is wholly reflective of my own experiences, but nonetheless I wanted to express my feelings on the matter as I did often feel troubled reading the book. I should also add that I found the focus on the Shakespeare production a little dull at the beginning, but I gradually became more interested in this as the book went on.

Overall, although it seems that I had many reservations about the book, I did really like it and I would recommend it, particularly if you like a descriptive and emotive kind of story. I know that this will be a popular book with so many people!

Thanks to Hodder and Stoughton for a free copy of this book in exchange for a review. ...more

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About David Nicholls

David Nicholls

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David Nicholls is a British author, screenwriter, and actor. A student of Toynbee Comprehensive school and Barton Peveril Sixth Form College, he Graduated from the University of Bristol having studied English Literature and Drama.

After graduation, he won a scholarship to study at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York, before returning to London in 1991 and finally earning an Equity ...more

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One Day / The Understudy / Starter For Ten

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Quotes from Sweet Sorrow

“Like I said, I’m fine. I don’t ever think of her.’ And I didn’t ever think of her, except from time to time.” — 5 likes

“... and it occurred to me then, just as it does now, that the greatest lie that age tells about youth is that it’s somehow free of care, worry or fear.” — 1 likes

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