... a smart and biting ... A searing, comedic and accessible take on depression and personality, Sad Janet delivers a comforting message about the value of individuality.
The narrative voice of Janet in Britsch’s debut novel is a skin-tingling combination of new and necessary ... The joy of Janet’s narration is in her self-acceptance, which results in surprising notes of humor and profound truths ... This book and this character are radical, and readers are likely to feel a relief at reading the thoughts they’ve had but not spoken.
In Britsch’s darkly comic debut, a deadpan, abrasive narrator muses on her depression ... Preternaturally self-aware, Janet has a gift for homing in on her own emotional state and everyone else’s, which Britsch renders in rueful, knowing prose that may land or miss, depending on if the reader can relate to pronouncements such as 'the cool kids call it melancholia, because of that Lars von Trier movie.' Still, Britsch’s monologue about the experience of unhappiness is undeniably infectious.
In Britsch’s darkly humorous debut ... When a new company claims they have a pill you can take to make Christmas tolerable, [Janet] acquiesces and tries it out ... Here’s where the plot would inevitably turn. But it doesn’t. Instead, it moves with the same inertia as its narrator, like a pill caught halfway down the throat. A sardonic portrayal of self-improvement in an age where sadness is stigmatized, Britsch’s novel feels so apt right now. However, by its end, it becomes a sort of echo chamber unto itself, full of cynicism, angst, existential ennui, and no solution. Perhaps that is life ... A misanthropic tale goes awry.
