For fans of Sally Rooney and Ottessa Moshfegh, A Bit Much is a darkly funny novel about the complexity of friendships, the agony of insecurity, and the beautiful and embarrassing nature of loving someone.
Alice is twenty-four and falling apart. Sheโs lost her job, her appetite, her ability to sleep. And now sheโs worried sheโs going to lose Mia, her closest friend, whoโs being treated for a serious illness. On the days Alice can get herself out of bed, she visits Mia at the hospital. While they sink into familiar patternsโAlice makes Mia laugh, Mia tells Alice she needs to get laidโthey know their friendship is changing, and they canโt control what will happen in the days ahead.
Still focused on Mia, while trying to convince others sheโs a stable, happy person, Alice meets her neighbour Jamesโsomeone she used to try to avoid. Theyโre interested in each other, but Alice, who is a lethal combination of judgmental and insecure, is hesitant; she has never had luck with dating, and she thinks now is a weird time since Mia needs her. And Alice figures he probably sucks anyway. Mia encourages Alice to be social, while attempting to hide her own loneliness and fear as her body breaks down. But as Alice tries to push herself to do more, including allowing herself to get close to James, she struggles to move forward knowing Mia canโt.
A Bit Much takes an intimate look at female friendships, new relationships, and the disorienting times in which we live. Brilliantly caustic and strangely funny, it introduces Sarah Jackson as a captivating new voice in Canadian literature.