Ten top novels with heroines who are hot messes

Justine Sullivan was born and raised just outside of Baltimore, Maryland, where she failed to learn how to shuck a crab and never attended a single Orioles game. She did, however, discover a passion for reading at her local Harford County Library. She went on to study English Literature at the University of Delaware and then earned her master's in journalism from Boston University and has since spent a number of years working in both newsrooms and the world of branded content. Sullivan lives outside of Boston with her husband and two terribly behaved dogs. He Said He Would Be Late is her debut novel.

At Lit Hub Sullivan tagged ten favorite novels with heroines who are hot messes, including:

Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason

“When she was seventeen, a little bomb went off in her brain.” Martha Friel has struggled with undiagnosed mental illness most of her life but no doctor, drug or therapy has been able to fix her. This book is dark and funny and sharp as a razor’s edge. I couldn’t put it down—or stop rooting for Martha.

Read about another entry on the list.

Sorrow and Bliss is among Claire Alexander's five books to read when you’re lonely, Jane Shemilt's five books tracing the portrayal of mental disorders in literature, and Alyssa Vaughn's [February 2021] 42 books to help you get through the rest of quarantine.

The Page 69 Test: Sorrow and Bliss.

--Marshal Zeringue