ONCE MORE, WITH FEELING

Calling to mind smart, raunchy and unrepentant popular series and novels such as The New Me, Fleabag, Normal People and My Year of Rest and Relaxation comes Sophie McCreesh's distinctive and arresting debut novel ONCE MORE, WITH FEELING.

Once More, With Feeling follows Jane, a student artist navigating her closest relationships while fixating on her own perceived failures and self-imposed isolation. When Jane receives a grant to attend a workshop in London, England, she sees the opportunity to leave her tedious life behind and start anew, bringing along her new friend Kitty, who Jane will not admit she has little in common with other than a shared appreciation for boxed wine and various other drugs. In London, Jane struggles to improve either her craft or her mindset while Kitty thrives, and a once exciting trip abroad transforms the already uneven dynamic of their friendship, leaving Jane feeling more withdrawn than ever. As her increasingly destructive behaviour gets in the way of her artistic ambitions, her most important relationships—those with Kitty, her absent lover Richard, and with a discredited therapist named Anna—begin to deteriorate as Jane starts to examine her growing dependence on substances.

Darkly funny, piercing and tender, Once More, With Feeling is a portrait of a detached young woman trapped in the perils of self-loathing and addiction, who is searching for individuality in an age of profound social disconnection and anxiety.

Sophie McCreesh is a fiction writer living in Toronto. She completed an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph. Her writing has appeared in Peach Mag, Bad Dog Review, Bad Nudes, Hobart, the Minola Review, Cosmonauts Avenue, and elsewhere. She is at work on new fiction.