A joyous, heart felt novel

4.5 stars. 

Sophie, Standing There was a mercurial read for me. On one level I felt I knew the direction of travel only for it veer swiftly into an obscure side road and trundle along until another unexpected shift sent us hurtling down a different, bumper path. At moments it felt perfect, others less so.

As I was reading the kindle edition I noticed Katherine Parkinson narrated the audiobook so jumped with hast to a different platform. Katherine Parkinson could not be more suited to narrating Sophie's tale if she tried. Genuinely sweet, empathetic with a quirky, gorgeously innocent humour that makes her one of my favourite actresses. She lifted this story closer to a 5 star, for me.

Meg Mason has an emotional intelligence super power. She captures those pesky, hard to nail down feelings with such clarity and rawness. Reading Sophie for that alone would make it worthwhile but the journey Sophie goes on is both unforeseen and liberating on a number of levels. She comes across as a partially formed, pitiable person but that is intentional and we later learn why. As the story progresses the reader's joy at her finding her feet in (sometimes) questionable ways is strengthened and we cheer for her and her awakening. By the end I loved her as a character and felt rather protective of her.

The path of Sophie, Standing There's narrative didn't go as I expected but that's what makes it a singular delight.