Affecting, clever and blisteringly humorous... a riveting read about heartbreak, female shame and self-acceptance -- Sarra Manning * Red Magazine *
Hits the nail on the head . . . above all it's a really beautiful portrayal of female friendship. -- Laura Hackett * Times Radio *
Absorbing and clever . . . I fell in love with Mathilda -- Cathy Rentzenbrink
Raw and unexpected and weird and utterly brilliant -- Otegha Uwagba
As soon as I finished the final page of What a Shame a deep ache set in. Written by one of the cleverest and boldest writers I've ever read, it is a powerful, beautiful, fascinating novel that will be read for years by any and all young women looking for a friend. I already miss Mathilda.
-- Scarlett Curtis
Comparisons to Sally Rooney are inevitable, but this heartfelt, sharp-yet-tender novel earns its own place in the spotlight -- Erin Kelly
What A Shame weaves eternal themes of grief and heartbreak against a modern canvas that is clear and recognisable. There's a piercing sense of what happens when your tragedy becomes your anecdote, and your anecdote becomes tiring to the people around you. Full of heart, wit and feeling, Bergstrom is a new voice but sure to be an enduring one. -- Caroline O'Donoghue
A brilliant debut -- Cariad Lloyd
Raw, poignant, haunting (and hilarious!)... In Mathilda, Bergstrom has created a clear-eyed heroine for a new generation.
-- Sam Baker
Truly captivating, blisteringly funny, so clever and perceptive and beautifully written. It made me want to voicenote all my friends immediately. I loved it! -- Lauren Bravo
A book that simultaneously punches you in the gut and makes you snort with laughter. It's beautifully raw in its delivery. A glorious new talent has arrived -- Emma Gannon
Dark, nuanced and provocative, this is a sterling debut that fans of Caroline O'Donoghue, Holly Bourne and Emma Jane Unsworth are sure to love. Mathilda's chilling - but ultimately redemptive - story will stay with me. -- Laura Jane Williams
Razor-sharp, compelling and darkly funny. An extraordinary novel that will stay with me for a long time. -- Laura Kay
What a Shame fizzes with energy, rage and love, burrowing deep into those experiences that define us at our core. Bergstrom writes with wit and wisdom, and Mathilda's voice is ever-incisive, fresh and compelling. -- Jessica Moor
I fell hard for Mathilda and her tale of heartache, grief and acceptance. Like most of us, she's a bit weird and a bit wild, and you'll be so glad you met her. -- Laura Pearson
A wry and zeitgeisty look at grief, heartbreak and the fix-you industry, What a Shame asks whether we can ever expect closure from our worst and most secret pain and fear. A must-read for anyone who has ever felt defined by a break-up.
-- Harriet Walker
Crackles with wit and emotional insight . . . so good on tangled webs of feeling, the power of female friendships, and hope -- Emma Hughes
Dark, complex and very funny. A dazzling debut about the power of self-belief, sisterhood and letting go -- Hannah Tovey
A book that beautifully balances the light and the dark. I loved spending time with Mathilda, a heroine who's funny, wise, wonderfully weird and brave, and who feels like a friend. -- Chloe Ashby
Tender, searingly honest and widely vulnerable. I couldn't stop reading -- Angela Scanlon
An absolute corker - tender, sexy and weird. I can't wait to see what she writes next -- Michelle Thomas
My favourite kind of book: the kind that you can't help but race through, leaves you immediately devastated when you finish it and envious of everyone who has yet to read it. -- Dr Soph
A painfully exquisite book, by a unique talent that has single handedly rewritten the narrative of female shame -- Camilla Pang
Abigail Bergstrom's assured debut is a forensic excavation of the female psyche - on friendship, grief, and the secrets we keep to survive.
-- Laura Bailey
A beautiful, raw story of self-acceptance and shame that haunted me until I finished the last page. Reading Abigail's debut captured the pain and release that comes with laughing at a funeral. I swallowed the story in big gulps and will push it towards my friends. An ambitious, beautifully balanced novel that manages to strike laughter and heartache in equal measure. -- Abigail Mann
