Όλα όσα ξέρω για την αγάπη

by Dolly Alderton, Αφροδίτη Σακκά (Translator)

Η άκρως αστεία, ενίοτε σπαρακτική, αυτοβιογραφία της Dolly Alderton έγινε παγκόσμιο bestseller και έχει μεταφραστεί σε 22 γλώσσες!

Πώς είναι να μεγαλώνεις, να ενηλικιώνεσαι και στην πορεία να μαθαίνεις πώς να διαχειρίζεσαι τη φιλία, τη δουλειά, την απώλεια και την αγάπη;

Όταν πρόκειται για τις δοκιμασίες και τους θριάμβους της ενηλικίωσης, η δημοσιογράφος και πρώην αρθρογράφος των Sunday Times τα έχει δει και τα έχει δοκιμάσει όλα. Στην αυτοβιογραφία της αφηγείται γλαφυρά το πώς ερωτεύτηκε, πώς βρήκε δουλειά, πώς μέθυσε, πώς την παράτησαν,

πώς συνειδητοποίησε ότι ο Ιβάν από το ψιλικατζίδικο στη γωνία μπορεί να είναι ο μόνος αξιόπιστος άντρας στη ζωή της και ότι κανείς, σε τελική ανάλυση, δεν μπορεί να συγκριθεί με τις καλύτερες φίλες της. Το Όλα Όσα Ξέρω για την Αγάπη μιλά για τα κακά ραντεβού, τις καλές φίλες και κυρίως για τη συνειδητοποίηση πως είσαι αρκετή.

Με ευφυΐα και διορατικότητα, συναίσθημα και χιούμορ, η Dolly Alderton υφαίνει τις προσωπικές της ιστορίες, σαρκάζει κι αυτοσαρκάζεται, δίνοντάς μας μια σειρά από λίστες, συνταγές και συμπεράσματα, που θα αγγίξουν και τις πιο ευαίσθητες χορδές κάθε γυναίκας, κάθε ηλικίας – κάνοντάς σε να θέλεις να σηκώσεις το τηλέφωνο και να πεις τα πάντα γι’ αυτό το βιβλίο στις φίλες σου. Κάτι σαν το Ημερολόγιο της Bridget Jones, αλλά αληθινό από την αρχή ως το τέλος, το Όλα Όσα Ξέρω για την Αγάπη μιλά για τα δύσκολα πρώτα βήματα της ενηλικίωσης με όλη την τρομακτική αλλά και ελπιδοφόρα αβεβαιότητά της.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Audiobook, Romance, Self Help, Book Club, Biography

368 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2018

About the author

Dolly Alderton is an award-winning author and journalist. She is a columnist for The Sunday Times Style and has also written for GQ, Red, Marie Claire and Grazia. From 2017 to 2020, she co-hosted the weekly pop-culture and current affairs podcast The High Low alongside journalist Pandora Sykes.

Her first book Everything I Know About Love became a top five Sunday Times bestseller in its first week of publication and won a National Book Award for Autobiography of the Year. Her first novel Ghosts was published in October 2020 and was also a top five Sunday Times Bestseller.

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 rounded down

I'm on the fence with this one - it was light and very readable (even while discussing some heavier topics) and I enjoyed the early 00s nostalgia trip for a bit (yes, we all remember MSN messenger), but overall this felt bloated, self-indulgent and could have been 100 pages shorter. I wasn't a fan of the inclusion of the "recipes" (one was for scrambled egg?!) or fictional satirical emails either.

I’ve enjoyed Dolly’s writing in The Sunday Times magazine in the past, but this collection of “hilarious” anecdotes of her making poor choices in men and doing drugs/getting drunk while seemingly not learning much left me feeling frustrated. And the conclusion that female friendships are the important thing overall? I didn’t buy it - all of the stories shared throughout the rest of the book didn’t support this conclusion. Only Dolly’s friend Farly comes out of this book looking good!

Reading about other people being hungover and self absorbed throughout their 20s (while not doing much else) doesn't make for a fun read, at least for me, anyway. I don't know why so many people in their early 30s are writing memoirs these days - collections of anecdotes that were hilarious (for you) at the time aren’t bringing anything new or insightful to the table for the rest of us.

[Annie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book but I’ve been left disappointed. Lured in by the hype around it and also by the title, which should have probably been ‘everything I know about being single and having friends’. I thought it was a slight cop out to write a book supposedly all about what you know about love, then finish by saying “I’ve never really experienced it other than with my girl friends”. The value of your friendships is a fair point but should that really be the conclusion of this book?

The random emails and recipes are boring and could have been left out. It became tiresomely long and I was rushing to get to the end. Which is a shame because I thought I was enjoying the book in the first few chapters. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it really reads like an over-privileged, white middle-class woman, who doesn’t have much self awareness about her own privileges. I think she might think a lot of what she’s writing - about excessive drinking, drug taking, tinder dates, paying extortionate taxi fares for the lols - is relatable, and maybe it is for other people in her social bracket, but it’s not to me. There’s a level of self-deprecation and self-obsession that’s funny, but there’s too much of it in this book. Wouldn’t waste your time.

[Cathryn · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’d really hoped that I’d be able to relate to Dolly Alderton but this has to be one of the most privileged, entitled pieces of writing I’ve ever come across. Her experience as a woman in her 20s may ring true to an affluent minority but she’s certainly not representative of a vast majority of the population.
Very few people get to spend their twenties high as a kite and being completely self destructive whilst still obtaining an incredible job and having everything just work out for them. Can publishers please stop giving people like this a platform to publish this sort of self-indulgent, vacuous mess.

1 star ⭐️

[Haley pham · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars (read for entertainment not advice)

[Heather Mclarry · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was made for me. Genuinely. It spoke to my fucking soul. The end was a little cheesy but idc

[Pip · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ladies and gentlemen, I have met my new personal hero. I started reading this book and immediately felt like I was cushioned perfectly in cotton wool and marshmallows, covered in fluffy blankets with cherubs singing to me and playing with my hair.

In other words - this is genuinely one of the most lovely and funny and heartwarming memoirs I've read in my rather short life so far. I LOVE it more than I could possibly say. I laughed out loud (even on the tube which I find daunting) and cried on and off throughout as so many of Dolly's words rang true to me.

Dating stories are my kryptonite and insights about loss and love I am always, always more than happy to gobble up. I love reading about peoples' experiences with love - romantic love, friendly love, young love, lost love. I WANT IT ALL. I LOVE IT MORE THAN SPRITE

Whether you're single/dating/relationshipping/married, I highly recommend this. IT'S DIVINE. New all time favourite!


(Re-read in July 2019: just as brilliant, if not even better the second time. Will this be something I read every year? YES AND WHAT OF IT)

[Brady Lockerby · Rating 5 out of 5]

HIGHLY recommend listening to it on audio since it’s narrated by the author. Her voice and accent reading this book had me laughing out loud from the first chapter all the way to the last. An amazing and raw coming of age book full of stories from her early 20’s up until she turns 30. As someone who is now in their “late” 20’s I resonated with this SO much. Loved loved loved 🫶🏼🫶🏼🫶🏼

[emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Remind me to reread this book in three or five or ten or fifteen years.

Because it is great. It's just not the book I need right now.

I'm 24, and I have a good number of friends I wish I saw more, and I wish I had more, and I like hooking up when I want to even casually, and I like having drinks when I want to even casually, and though my brain isn't perfect it isn't because of those things.

The author doesn't say that it is, but it felt (to me) like there wasn't a lot of room for people in other places in their journey with love in this book.

Because the author moves from alcoholism to reduced drinking and/or sobriety, and because the author moves away from hooking up, and because the author is in a wonderful place with a sisterhood of friends, I couldn't find any room for myself in this book. Because I am happy without any of those things.

I didn't feel judged, exactly. This is a good and nonjudgmental book. I just felt maybe a little unwelcome.

It isn't on the author - it's on me! It's a pandemic and I'm so sensitive about the ways my life looks right now. It's hard already being in your early or mid-twenties and spending them in a state of lockdown. This book exacerbated that FOMO, a bit.

Anyway, the author never says you can't do any of these things, but if you do, or if you don't have an excess of platonic love in your life - if you have fewer friends or shallower relationships - you may not feel at home in these pages.

It's surely on me and not the author, but I didn't.

Bottom line: A good book for a future me!

--------------
tbr review

i've heard so much about this book in such a short amount of time that i have no choice but to take it as a sign from the universe

[Georgia · Rating 1 out of 5]

I listened to Everything I Know About Love on audiobook, mostly during my commute. This was good and bad - good because I hate to not finish books and there's no way I would've finished this if I had to dedicate 100% of my attention to it, as opposed to listening whilst travelling, cleaning etc. However, the bad was that I perhaps would've interpreted it differently in book form. In audio form, I found Dolly frustrating, whiney and self-indulgent where I might have taken the written format more light heartedly.

I don't want to be too harsh about this memoir because it's ultimately someone's life and that feels wrong. However my low rating was largely due to the awful, selfish attitude Dolly takes to her friendships. I understand the odd pang of envy when friends are getting married and you're far behind, but Dolly seemed to genuinely wish for her friends lives to go wrong just so their attention could be focused on her. Yet when something does go wrong, she swoops in and describes all the things she said and did because she's such a great friend - it came across as incredibly self-indulgent.

There was the odd part of this book which made me think and reflect, but mostly I wanted it to end as I was so irritated by it. I didn't find it funny and, at one point, inadvertently groaned and willed it to stop out loud when it went on.. and on.. and on about some unfunny text messages about bins. If you do want to give this book a try, I'd recommend paper form as opposed to audiobook which I imagine makes it more light hearted.

[elle · Rating 5 out of 5]

mini review
all i have to say is that i love my best friend.

this was so profoundly and beautifully written while also being light and humorous. dolly alderton is obviously an incredibly talented writer & i am so happy i read this for one of my first books of 2022.

⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻

“she knows where to find everything in me and i know where all her stuff is too. she is, in short, my best friend.”

this was my first full read of 2022, and i am so happy i started with this. this review is going to be more personal than my other reviews, so here is a tiny disclaimer.

there’s a certain addictiveness about dolly alderton’s writing. she’s funny, witty, and obviously an extremely good writer. i flew through the pages (while the initial 100 pages were rough + could have been cut down a bit, the rest of the book was so beautifully written that i couldn't help but give this five stars).

what i loved the most about this book is her friendships, especially the one she has with farley. i adored the way she spoke about her best friend, about how they are two halves of a whole and how they have left ‘no pebble unturned’. it did not take me long to realize that this memoir is not about men or relationships, it is more of a love letter to her best friend and the friendships she has in her life. i really appreciated that.

i cried big ugly tears and sent quotes to my own best friend because alderton encapsulated exactly how i feel about her; i love her to pieces and pieces, till death do us part, all the clichés.

this is my favorite part out of the entire book:

"i want to know what that feels like, to be truly committed to someone, rather than having one foot out the door."
"you're too hard on yourself," she said. "you can do long-term love. you've done it better than anyone i know."
"how? my longest relationship was two years and that was over when i was twenty-four."
"i'm talking about you and me," she said.

another thing i loved that she touched on was on the lull of life, which feels fitting to read about, especially during a pandemic where things are inevitably less ‘exciting’ than before. there’s a quote on getting older in your 20s that really resonated with me:

“you are realizing the mundanity of life. you are finally understanding how little point there is to anything. you are moving out of the realm of fantasy 'when i grow up' and adjusting to the reality that you're there; it's happening. and it's wasn't what you thought it might be. you are not who you thought you'd be.”

this hit me way harder than i thought it would. because i think it’s true in a sense: your twenties are most likely going to be much more anticlimactic than you thought it would be. i think the pandemic has especially left me disillusioned regarding some aspects of my life. but also, i do think that life is about appreciating the mundanity that is so despised, and realizing that usually, the small fleeting moments in life are the ones that truly matter.

whether it’s mundane or special, that’s up to you.

[aadri ♥ · Rating 1 out of 5]

read this right before i turned 20 and now i know what not to do bc good lord this was painful to read 😐

[Khalilah D. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book felt like a hug from a big sister. It was a held out hand after falling and a safe haven. It also made me realize that I want nothing more than to find true, unrelenting love within myself for myself...and a Farly of my own.

[Robyn · Rating 1 out of 5]

I listened to it Audible, are you happy now?

I got this audiobook because it consistently showed up in my recommended listening pile and one evening last week I was leaving work with nothing to listen to on my commute, so I made the ill-advised choice of wasting a credit on this pile of trash.

Look, I'm sure Dolly Alderton is the kind of well-meaning, scatterbrained person who is funny and charming to run into at a party and probably does a pretty good job in her chosen profession of a newspaper columnist. I'm sure tons of people told her she was so hilarious she should write a book about her life... these people were wrong.

The fact of the matter is, Alderton, a woman in her early thirties, hasn't yet achieved anything so remarkable thus far as to warrant a lengthy (at least it felt lengthy) memoir at this stage of her life and equally doesn't possess the wit to make up for the deficit of compelling content (although she would have you believe otherwise).

The book (if you can call it that) is mostly a collection of meandering anecdotes of drunken debauchery - the kind of "you had to be there" stories that were "so hilarious" at the time that seem painfully dull and misguided to anyone who wasn't. We get it. You got drunk and stayed up late a lot in your 20s. Big swingin' Mickey.

What's even more annoying is that Alderton plays this smug self-aware card, trying to make out that she knows she was an immature dope for most of her life but it doesn't work because the growth she exhibits from the beginning of the memoir to the end is minimal and the overriding tone of "my life might be a mess but I'm more witty and cool than you'll ever be" throughout the entire journey is sick-making. This feeling is particularly accelerated by the addition of word count-padding fake satirical emails and inexplicable recipes that feel lifted straight from an online blog.

Reading through Alderton's musings on "love" as she puts them, it seems as though her emotional development came to an abrupt halt at around 15 or 16 - not only in relation to romantic love but also platonic love. She consistently posits that she is "obsessed" with men, yet her ability to navigate romantic partnerships with any sort of emotional maturity seems to dwindle in direct proportion to her growing and naive possessiveness over the long-held platonic female relationships in her life.

Dressing it up as a message of female empowerment and solidarity, Alderton attempts to stress to her audience the importance of female friendships that shouldn't be dropped in favour of the latest man on the scene.

I mean, that's all well and good but is that really what's going on here? Throughout the entire book, again and again, Alderton talks about men and her female friends' boyfriends as if they were mere playthings and distractions whom she sees as obstacles getting in the way of her friendships. She doesn't shy away from the fact that she is quite selfishly vehemently resentful when her best friend Farly gets engaged. Her relationship with Farly is the most highlighted of the book by far, and at times feels so insidiously and unnecessarily possessive that you are left wondering whether indeed Alderton is just severely closeted.

To conclude, this is the kind of narcissistic, navel-gazing type of writing that perpetuates the negative stereotype of the entitled millennial with no real problems and it makes me sad all day.

[Jessica · Rating 1 out of 5]

I enjoyed it at the start for nostalgia reasons (yes, I remember the modern sound! I remember chatting on MSN!). But after a while, I found it quite repetitive, both of itself (here's another drunk story that I'm officially telling in a disapproving tone but really I'm quite impressed with how mad and fun I am) and just of loads of other writing (let's make fun of excessive hen dos/weddings etc like a million other people, let's talk about being true to yourself and liking yourself first before a relationship etc etc).

I quite liked the writing about female friendship at the end, and that started to make me try and rethink my impressions, as I think a focus on the love of female friendships is important and interesting. But I think my problem is that this isn't what it actually was - rather it was a focus on her, and she happened to have female friends as her most lasting connection, which felt very different (and it was all a bit 'look at me, I'm such a great friend') . I guess my main problem was that I found her very narcissistic and unlikeable. The tone and writing reminded me a lot of Caitlin Moran who I also find irritating and someone who states the obvious but thinks she's being really incisive.

[Danielle Hurley · Rating 1 out of 5]

I feel like I did not read the same book as the 30,000 people that rated this 5 stars. I never write reviews but this…,,,,sucked

[madii ੈ✩ ♡ · Rating 5 out of 5]

a documentation of a woman’s life, growing up and navigating life in london, and a reflection on her experiences from childhood into her thirties. it is deeply personal and honest, making it such a beautiful and thought-provoking look into family & friendship, heartache and identity. throughout, i felt as if i was sitting down with dolly and she was sharing her stories and life lessons with me.

honestly this book almost felt like free therapy. it taught me so so much, and i related to it in so many ways that it amazed me. so many little sentences of advice felt complexity catered to me- my personal circumstances and struggles. whilst it dived into deeper issues such as addiction, grief and self-worth, it also had a warm thread of reassuring energy. it made me feel like everything was going to be okay.

naturally, there were parts of the memoir that weren’t my favourite, completely subjectively. the start dragged a little and i didn’t care for the random recipes and email/ message excerpts scattered throughout. i skipped almost all of them. whilst i see they were added in to break up the more intense, emotional chapters, it still felt, at times, tedious and unnecessary.

but with that being said, i loved this book and it’s so worth the read. it’s a memoir rich with wisdom, fun storytelling and gorgeous, raw, stirring writing. im so thankful for dolly's vulnerability in publishing this masterpiece, and i’ll never forget it and all it taught me.

--> bear with me here because i can't help but to include my favourite page from a book ever which was found here:

"because i am enough. my heart is enough. the stories and the sentences twisting around my mind are enough. i am fizzing and frothing and buzzing and exploding. i'm bubbling over and burning up. my early morning walk and my late night baths are enough. my loud laugh at the pub is enough... i am the warm-up act, the main event, and the backing singers. and if this is it, if this is all there is- just me and the trees and the sky and the seas- i know now that that is enough. i am enough. i am enough. the words ricocheted through me, shaking every cell as they traveled. i felt them; i understood them; they fused into my bones... i am whole and complete. i will never run out."

[Valeria Lipovetsky · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really had to push myself to get through this one and at about 50% into it- I just couldn’t. Some people mentioned how It’s written in a very British way (humor wise) and that maybe the reason I didn’t get it but beside the jokes I might have missed, I just felt throughout how the storyline is just dragging for too long... I hope she found resolutions and life lessons by the end of it, unfortunately I couldn’t stick around to find out 😅

[buket · Rating 4 out of 5]

when i first start reading this i enjoyed it a lot because i’m a nosy person and it was like reading her diary😌 then i genuinely loved this book and i will definitely continue reading her books!

💌Nearly everything I know about love, I've learnt from my long-term friendships with women.

i’ll always be grateful for my girl friends <3 when life gets hard and i don’t feel like doing anything they always have my back🥹

💌 I hadn't ever thought that a man could love me in the same way that my friends love me; that I could love a man with the same commitment and care with which I love them.

loving a man like i love my friends??? impossible

~~~~
one of my 2024 goals is reading 50 nonfiction or at least non-romance books(because miss girl only reads romance). guess how many i’ve read so far? if you said 0, i’m sad that you have no faith in me😔 but also, if you said 0, you’re correct ‼️😭

anyways time to read something different, yay(!)

[Nadia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loooooved it! 😍😍😍

I'm a bit embarassed to admit that I hardly knew who Dolly Adlerton was before reading this book, but after finishing Everything I Know About Love, I'm now a massive fan!

Dolly took me on a journey through love, friendship, heartache and anxiety that was relatable, honest and funny. Filled with disastrous dates, wild nights out but also moving stories about friendship, this book will make you both laugh and cry.

I heard this book being described as Sex and the City for millennials and it absolutely is!!

Right, I'm off to buy copies of the book for all my girlfriends!

[Nicola Dewilde · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book just didn’t work for me. I didn’t really understand the point it was trying to make?
The last third was the most relatable but I’m not sure I would recommend to anyone.

[aarna :) · Rating 1 out of 5]

this book is very… white woman

[Anna · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well I finished it. Apart from a couple of moments of reprieve, I can confirm that this was a hate-read of a memoir by someone incredibly privileged and self-absorbed. Glad to see she eventually did a bit of growing up but MY GOD.

[Delaney]

Sisterhood is the most beautiful & pure form of love. 😭

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, I felt so comforted by this book by the time I got to its end. When she’s at her peak, I love Dolly Alderton’s writing – she has a warm, distinct, and smart voice, with the right amount of humor thrown in. This book felt like a coming-of-age memoir about Dolly’s relationships both with people around her and herself.

I really liked how she shared the hard-won wisdom she acquired through experiences such as experiencing her best friend get engaged, some tumultuous relationships with men, and navigating therapy and her own self-development. There were quite a few emotional moments that hit me hard, like when she wrote about her fear of her friendship with Farly changing due to Farly’s romantic relationship developing, or her missing the oodles of time she had in her late teens and her twenties. I think the combination of Alderton’s self-aware honesty and the quality of her writing is what makes her emotional disclosure feel so rewarding to me as a reader. And, as a 28-year-old who’s had similar experiences to her – though with a lot of different social identities, lol – I found much of her perspective relatable. What I cherish about this book the most is that even though romantic love is discussed quite a bit, it’s clear that Alderton genuinely prioritizes her relationships with her friends and with herself, which is also how I live my life.

I give this book four stars instead of five because it could have been more streamlined. There were several sections especially in the first half that I thought could’ve been cut, that seemed extraneous or like filler. Still, the non-filler parts of this book won me over for sure.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bloody hell, pals. This book is sweet and silly, smart and serious. I would highly recommend.

I don't read an awful lot of auto-biographical stuff but I knew of Dolly already, through her PanDolly and High-Low podcasts with Pandora Sykes and her amusing dating column in the Sunday Times. And when it popped up on NetGalley, I wanted it. I wanted it real bad. So, yes: this is a NetGalley freebie but thoughts are my own, of course: what is the point otherwise?

So. Everything I Know About Love. That title isn't really a misnomer, not exactly, but it does set you up to think that it's about capital L Love - you know, Carrie Bradshaw's ridiculous, all-consuming, can't-live-without-it Love. But Dolly herself would be the first person to tell you that she has very little experience of that Love, actually. (Pun intended.) Would she like more? Yes. But has she been without love? That's a definite no there, my friend. This book is full of love, in its wild and various guises, but it shines most brightly in Dolly's over-whelming and supportive (but not always healthy) love for her friends, a tight knit group of woman who live with, live for, fight with and fight for each other. I won't lie; I was very jealous. Dolly, her best friend Farley and their extended group of wonderful women have something very special - and Dolly never, ever forgets that.

I was eager for this book, you know. I was hungry. And I gulped it all up in three big bites, staying up later than I really should to finish it off. I think the fun here for me was, admittedly, partly because because Dolly and I are both English and close in age. There were many similarities for us, although she is definitely a lot posher. I don't mind saying that I'm a bit older than her, so I did miss some of those cultural things, especially the pure sheer devotion to local MSN - I used it, too, but I talked to people in America who were a little ahead of us here. But there's always interest for me in people who started to come of age as the internet did. (That's probably self-absorbed, but there it is.)

And you know how they always say that New York is the fifth character in Sex and the City? Well, if London isn't a main role here, it was definitely a scene-stealing extra, popping up frequently and joyfully. Having lived in London for almost fifteen years now, I feel like the city was beautifully painted, mostly via a vividly ramshackle Camden Town.

The reoccurring lists in this book were a real highlight for me. Dolly writes a literal list of what she knows about love at different ages and, my god, if they weren't exactly the lists I would have written at the same times. If they haven't aged and mellowed just like I have. If they haven't sharpened and become less likely to take your bullshit just like I have. They were perfect, truly.

And one last thing I wanted to mention: Dolly writes a beautiful meditation on the difference between intensity and intimacy that left me reeling. A crazy, all-consuming relationship she has almost entirely over text which ends in a flurry of drama felt almost rude, the way it was pointing a big finger straight at me. I saw myself there and it made me put my Kindle down, as I was laying in bed next to the love of my life, and think about just that. I have been there, Dolly, I have lived that existence, confusing intimacy and intensity, trying to stretch the fizz of excitement into something more sustainable. But champagne goes flat and what you're left with after the bubbles have gone isn't entirely palatable. I loved it at the time and I'm so glad it's over. Thank you for writing about it so wonderfully, Dolly. Thanks for the wild ride.

[fatma · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was expecting to love this ever since hearing about Dolly Alderton and listening to her talk on various podcasts, but it was so very mediocre.

Fundamentally, my problem with this book is that it was not at all—and I'm about to use a Cursed word here—relatable to me. My adolescence could not have been more different from Alderton's. Obviously I don't need an author to have had the same experiences as me to enjoy a book, but I feel like with this book especially you need to have some personal connection with the content for it to resonate with you—I didn't. And so what I thought was going to be an emotionally impactful read in theory ended up being a forgettable, meh book in actuality.

Also, I didn't think that this book necessarily needed to exist...? Alderton writes about her early 20s, romantic relationships, female friendships, therapy sessions all in a pretty conversational way, with the takeaway from all those things being: accept yourself, you're great just as you are, you're good enough, etc. etc. I don't know, I didn't feel like I needed to read 368 pages of a book to get that message. The destination did not make up for the journey, here, and so I ended up enjoying neither. (This would've worked better as a limited series podcast, maybe.)

The beginning and end of it is: I just didn't care. It's never a good sign when you miss parts of an audiobook and can't be bothered to rewind it and pay proper attention.

[Alex.andthebooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nie jestem obiektywna przy tej książce — ona po prostu odnalazła mnie w idealnym momencie. Czytanie jej było jak rozmowa ze starszą siostrą, która zna i rozumie Twoje najgłębsze lęki. Wyciąga na wierzch wszystkie Twoje zagubione „ja” i po kolei przytula.

[AbbysBooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was it meant to make me as sad as it did? Did it just hit too close to home when I, myself, am experiencing a sort of existential crisis?
Either way Dolly writes beautifully and honestly and it’s impossible for her words to not strike chords within you.

[Michael · Rating 1 out of 5]

Egocentric waffle from an author with nothing interesting to say.

This book could have been written by any of Earth's 7.5 billion people, and have been on a similar level of plot and calibre. Literally, this person has done nothing with her life. Her book, just tells of her drinking habits at University, and who she shagged. Some riveting details include, going on a long taxi journey for a drunken shag (gripping).

I am worried that the author believes herself capable of writing, and that her pose may be quirky, and quick witted. Who else would be arrogant enough to fill half the book with hang-over food recipes or tips for finding a bloke?

The greatest annoyance I hold for this book? That a natural resource is being used to produce this rubbish.

[Sophie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I just could not mentally force myself to finish it.

It was honest and made me laugh occasionally but for me, it lacked a bit of depth. It was full of anecdotes but I don't think it really scratched below the surface, which made me question what the point was to half the stories apart from acknowledging that she had done them.

I'm afraid I won't be turning to this book when in need of love advice but maybe I will if I need a recipe.