What a Shame

An intelligent, moving and darkly comic debut, taking us deftly from serious explorations of trauma and consent to riotously funny scenes of modern life – it's like Fleabag with a sprinkling of the occult.
The Sunday Times

Tipped to be THE hit book of 2022
Daily Mail

Affecting, clever and blisteringly humorous… a riveting read about heartbreak, female shame and self-acceptance
Red Magazine – Sarra Manning

Hits the nail on the head . . . above all it's a really beautiful portrayal of female friendship.
Times Radio – Laura Hackett

Dazzling . . . By turns funny, sharp, raw and overwhelming, this is one of those novels where you think you are exploring someone else's pain, only to realise you are actually exploring your own
Heat – Read of the Week

Alternately haunting and hilarious . . . an original and zeitgeisty story about grief, friendship, secrets, shame and self-acceptance.
Daily Mail

It's LOL, ever-so-relatable and will also have you weeping into a snotty tissue. Love, love, love
Cosmopolitan

A modern story of grief and loss
Refinery29

Bergstrom's prose, and especially the core dynamic of Mathilda and her friends (a coven of voice notes and anxious love) has a sweet verisimilitude that is delightfully frank, (re)inscribing warmth and intimacy for warmth and intimacy's sakes. And if it all seems a bit familiar – the millennial hodgepodge of tarot, bad dates, housemates and female trauma – well, maybe this is also the point. Maybe these stories are more common than we want to believe.
The Skinny

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