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Rookie on Love
A single-subject anthology about the heart's most powerful emotion, edited by Tavi Gevinson. Featuring exclusive, never-before-seen essays, poems, comics, and interviews from contributors like Jenny Zhang, Emma Straub, Hilton Als, Janet Mock, John Green, Rainbow Rowell, Gabourey Sidibe, Mitski, Alessia Cara, Etgar Keret, Margo Jefferson, Sarah Manguso, Durga Chew-Bose, and many more!
A single-subject anthology about the heart's most powerful emotion, edited by Tavi Gevinson. Featuring exclusive, never-before-seen essays, poems, comics, and interviews from contributors like Jenny Zhang, Emma Straub, Hilton Als, Janet Mock, John Green, Rainbow Rowell, Gabourey Sidibe, Mitski, Alessia Cara, Etgar Keret, Margo Jefferson, Sarah Manguso, Durga Chew-Bose, and many more!
A single-subject anthology about the heart's most powerful emotion, edited by Tavi Gevinson. Featuring exclusive, never-before-seen essays, poems, comics, and interviews from contributors like Jenny Zhang, Emma Straub, Hilton Als, Janet Mock, John Green, Rainbow Rowell, Gabourey Sidibe, Mitski, Alessia Cara, Etgar Keret, Margo Jefferson, Sarah Manguso, Durga Chew-Bose, and many more!
276 pages, Paperback
First published January 2, 2018
50 people are currently reading
1536 people want to read
About the author
Tavi Gevinson
19 books416 followersTavi Gevinson is an American writer, magazine editor, actress and singer. Raised in Oak Park, Illinois, Gevinson came to public attention at the age of twelve because of her fashion blog Style Rookie. By the age of fifteen, she had shifted her focus to pop culture and feminist discussion. Gevinson is the founder and editor-in-chief of the online Rookie Magazine, aimed primarily at teenage girls. In both 2011 and 2012, she appeared on the Forbes 30 Under 30 in Media list.
Source: Wikipedia
Source: Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 105 reviews
August 1, 2018
“My memory of men is never lit up and illuminated like my memory of women.”― Marguerite Duras
A single-subject anthology about the heart's most powerful emotion, edited by Tavi Gevinson. Touching upon love in all its different variations, from “a devotional to dogs” (Durga Chew-Bose) to unrequited love to accepting your self-worth to experiencing intimate friendships with women.
“Love is all around, but its holding place is not always another person. Sometimes you find the best companion in yourself, or the fun of worshipping a teen idol, or the challenge of trying to understand love in its various forms. ”
Before starting, I casually browsed through the table of contents and saw a stellar piece titled “Do Sisters Actually Love Each Other?” by Jazmine Hughes, which I hurried on to read because it was something I really needed. And it was just as spectacular as the title conveys, featuring a group text between a bunch of sisters.
“JAVONNE I came back to, like, eighty messages to read and I will not.
Someone fill me in if you want an answer from me.”
When I then saw that Tavi Gevinson had shared a live reading of this hilarious and touching piece, I was over-the-moon.
All I need now is the return of the Rookie podcast, which I raved about back in April of 2017.
Rookie on Love, however, didn't quite embody the expectations I had in mind before starting. More than once I experienced the feeling of really enjoying how a story builds up but then, almost without fail, it would veer off downhill, destroying what it had created in its small space, and end on a completely unsatisfying note. And because of the short length, there wasn't even a redeeming moment that could've saved the narrative.
It also didn't help the collection of hitting a rough patch in the middle, where none of the essays held my attention and consequently failed to raise any emotion out of me (I mean, other than bitter rage at a certain line in Collier Meyerson's piece I landed upon while randomly flipping through the collection)... Thankfully though, when I finally reached Victoria Chiu's written piece, which came in to save the day, as she touches upon her choice to abstain from "(penetrative) sex." As well as other standout pieces in here that I'd like to feature, such as:
• Fwd: Letter to Leyb by Tova Benjamin, talking about relationships in the digital age:
“Sometimes I think, I will never forget that I felt this way. And then I do. It seems horribly scary to invest so much time and energy and emotion into something that will eventually wind down to the end of its life, be it 44 days or two years and nine months. And then what?”
• The Most Exciting Moment of Alma’s Life by Etgar Keret. A quick story on life after experiencing your highest high.
“Though for Alma, it’s not really just a question. Sometimes she actually dreams about what happened at the Biblical Zoo. She with her braids and the lion standing so close to her that she could feel his warm breath on her face. In some of the dreams, the lion rubs up against her in a friendly way, in others, he opens his mouth and roars, and then she usually wakes up terrified. So one can say that as long as she keeps dreaming, that moment hasn’t completely passed. But dreaming, with all due respect, is not exactly living.”
• Beyond Self-Respect by Jenny Zhang. One of the most important pieces, talking about how love and respect need to go hand in hand, which I also heard a lecture on a few months back and it completely changed my viewpoint.
“The way we talk about respect and teenage girls needs to change. I want girls to learn how to disrespect the men in their lives who cause them harm and violence, I want them to learn how to disrespect patriarchal values that bind and demean. Looking back on my past relationships, I can pinpoint the very moment when I lost respect for the person I was dating. Often, it happened early on—a casually offensive remark that betrayed deeper levels of racism, an unfunny joke that revealed how much he feared and hated women, or even just a delusional comment that showed zero self-awareness—but always, when I was younger, I would continue to date that person, doubling down on my commitment, all the while losing respect for him. That’s the most disturbing part, that I thought I could love someone I didn’t even respect.”
• Super Into a Person’s Person-ness a conversation between Rainbow Rowell and John Green, “YA powerhouses on writing epic—yet real—teen love.” I can listen to Rainbow Rowell for eternity, as you can tell by my extensive review of my all-time favorite book of hers, Fangirl.
“RAINBOW When I’m writing love stories (which I can’t help but do, it’s always a love story for me), I really don’t want to be writing a story that makes it worse for the people reading it. That perpetuates all the lies about love and attraction.
JOHN Right.
RAINBOW But also, if I’m writing about teenagers, I don’t want them to be somehow magically above this bullshit. They can’t be wizened 40-year-olds who know from experience that it’s garbage.
JOHN Well, but also, I don’t think you ever get magically above this bullshit. We’re talking like this is all in our past, but of course inherited ideas about beauty and attractiveness affect adult life, too.
RAINBOW Yes.
JOHN Hopefully over time you develop an awareness that, e.g., your obsession with the perfect nose is completely ludicrous, but it’s not like it all goes away.
RAINBOW You’re still a nose man?
JOHN God, no. I am a PERSON MAN. I am super into a person’s person-ness.”
• Before I Started Writing These Things Directly to You by Tavi Gevinson, on trying to capture the feelings as they occur.
“I just don’t trust words a whole lot, and wonder if writing this, too, takes the air out of the whole thing, like in the Chekhov story “The Kiss,” where the sad loner shares the story of an improbable romantic encounter with his male colleagues and, upon hearing it out loud, experiences the whole thing as woefully insignificant.”
I wholeheartedly enjoyed this piece by Tavi, wherein she managed to create a solid grip on her relationship with this goofy grinning guy in just one page.
Overall, I'd say I came to appreciate most of all the pieces that exposed my innermost feelings so successfully that it made me reflect a lot. So even though the collection as a whole was mainly a hit or miss with its forty-something stories, I still came to cherish a handful of pieces.
Note: I'm an Amazon Affiliate. If you're interested in buying Rookie on Love, just click on the image below to go through my link. I'll make a small commission!
Support creators you love. Buy a Coffee for nat (bookspoils) with Ko-fi.com/bookspoils
A single-subject anthology about the heart's most powerful emotion, edited by Tavi Gevinson. Touching upon love in all its different variations, from “a devotional to dogs” (Durga Chew-Bose) to unrequited love to accepting your self-worth to experiencing intimate friendships with women.
“Love is all around, but its holding place is not always another person. Sometimes you find the best companion in yourself, or the fun of worshipping a teen idol, or the challenge of trying to understand love in its various forms. ”
Before starting, I casually browsed through the table of contents and saw a stellar piece titled “Do Sisters Actually Love Each Other?” by Jazmine Hughes, which I hurried on to read because it was something I really needed. And it was just as spectacular as the title conveys, featuring a group text between a bunch of sisters.
“JAVONNE I came back to, like, eighty messages to read and I will not.
Someone fill me in if you want an answer from me.”
When I then saw that Tavi Gevinson had shared a live reading of this hilarious and touching piece, I was over-the-moon.
All I need now is the return of the Rookie podcast, which I raved about back in April of 2017.
Rookie on Love, however, didn't quite embody the expectations I had in mind before starting. More than once I experienced the feeling of really enjoying how a story builds up but then, almost without fail, it would veer off downhill, destroying what it had created in its small space, and end on a completely unsatisfying note. And because of the short length, there wasn't even a redeeming moment that could've saved the narrative.
It also didn't help the collection of hitting a rough patch in the middle, where none of the essays held my attention and consequently failed to raise any emotion out of me (I mean, other than bitter rage at a certain line in Collier Meyerson's piece I landed upon while randomly flipping through the collection)... Thankfully though, when I finally reached Victoria Chiu's written piece, which came in to save the day, as she touches upon her choice to abstain from "(penetrative) sex." As well as other standout pieces in here that I'd like to feature, such as:
• Fwd: Letter to Leyb by Tova Benjamin, talking about relationships in the digital age:
“Sometimes I think, I will never forget that I felt this way. And then I do. It seems horribly scary to invest so much time and energy and emotion into something that will eventually wind down to the end of its life, be it 44 days or two years and nine months. And then what?”
• The Most Exciting Moment of Alma’s Life by Etgar Keret. A quick story on life after experiencing your highest high.
“Though for Alma, it’s not really just a question. Sometimes she actually dreams about what happened at the Biblical Zoo. She with her braids and the lion standing so close to her that she could feel his warm breath on her face. In some of the dreams, the lion rubs up against her in a friendly way, in others, he opens his mouth and roars, and then she usually wakes up terrified. So one can say that as long as she keeps dreaming, that moment hasn’t completely passed. But dreaming, with all due respect, is not exactly living.”
• Beyond Self-Respect by Jenny Zhang. One of the most important pieces, talking about how love and respect need to go hand in hand, which I also heard a lecture on a few months back and it completely changed my viewpoint.
“The way we talk about respect and teenage girls needs to change. I want girls to learn how to disrespect the men in their lives who cause them harm and violence, I want them to learn how to disrespect patriarchal values that bind and demean. Looking back on my past relationships, I can pinpoint the very moment when I lost respect for the person I was dating. Often, it happened early on—a casually offensive remark that betrayed deeper levels of racism, an unfunny joke that revealed how much he feared and hated women, or even just a delusional comment that showed zero self-awareness—but always, when I was younger, I would continue to date that person, doubling down on my commitment, all the while losing respect for him. That’s the most disturbing part, that I thought I could love someone I didn’t even respect.”
• Super Into a Person’s Person-ness a conversation between Rainbow Rowell and John Green, “YA powerhouses on writing epic—yet real—teen love.” I can listen to Rainbow Rowell for eternity, as you can tell by my extensive review of my all-time favorite book of hers, Fangirl.
“RAINBOW When I’m writing love stories (which I can’t help but do, it’s always a love story for me), I really don’t want to be writing a story that makes it worse for the people reading it. That perpetuates all the lies about love and attraction.
JOHN Right.
RAINBOW But also, if I’m writing about teenagers, I don’t want them to be somehow magically above this bullshit. They can’t be wizened 40-year-olds who know from experience that it’s garbage.
JOHN Well, but also, I don’t think you ever get magically above this bullshit. We’re talking like this is all in our past, but of course inherited ideas about beauty and attractiveness affect adult life, too.
RAINBOW Yes.
JOHN Hopefully over time you develop an awareness that, e.g., your obsession with the perfect nose is completely ludicrous, but it’s not like it all goes away.
RAINBOW You’re still a nose man?
JOHN God, no. I am a PERSON MAN. I am super into a person’s person-ness.”
• Before I Started Writing These Things Directly to You by Tavi Gevinson, on trying to capture the feelings as they occur.
“I just don’t trust words a whole lot, and wonder if writing this, too, takes the air out of the whole thing, like in the Chekhov story “The Kiss,” where the sad loner shares the story of an improbable romantic encounter with his male colleagues and, upon hearing it out loud, experiences the whole thing as woefully insignificant.”
I wholeheartedly enjoyed this piece by Tavi, wherein she managed to create a solid grip on her relationship with this goofy grinning guy in just one page.
Overall, I'd say I came to appreciate most of all the pieces that exposed my innermost feelings so successfully that it made me reflect a lot. So even though the collection as a whole was mainly a hit or miss with its forty-something stories, I still came to cherish a handful of pieces.
Note: I'm an Amazon Affiliate. If you're interested in buying Rookie on Love, just click on the image below to go through my link. I'll make a small commission!
Support creators you love. Buy a Coffee for nat (bookspoils) with Ko-fi.com/bookspoils
Read
August 7, 2024Emotional post alert lol❗️
Growing up, Rookie Mag (RIP) was so important to me. It was the first/only place that spoke openly and realistically to dreamy teens like me about mental health, friendships, sex...everything. The content was a beautiful escape, and where I found many writers and artists that I still follow to this day. SO I felt a nostalgic need to read their final essay collection. Enjoyable, soft, and honest- true Rookie fashion. Thank u 4 everything, for helping me in the dark times and the good❤️
Growing up, Rookie Mag (RIP) was so important to me. It was the first/only place that spoke openly and realistically to dreamy teens like me about mental health, friendships, sex...everything. The content was a beautiful escape, and where I found many writers and artists that I still follow to this day. SO I felt a nostalgic need to read their final essay collection. Enjoyable, soft, and honest- true Rookie fashion. Thank u 4 everything, for helping me in the dark times and the good❤️
December 20, 2022
*Current rating: December 15th-20th 2022, 4 stars*
First read: May 12th, 2018-May 17th, 2018, 4 stars
To touch on one subject that is written a ton about and to have me come away with new ways of thinking and new perspectives is something to be excited about. Even though this book was about love, a topic I try and avoid it in fiction, I found myself thoroughly enjoying this anthology. It was about love, but it was about more than love. The surface level that we all know, of romantic love, this book made me realize I am surrounded in love, bathed in love, because I have my family and I have myself. I may not be dating anyone, but this book made me realize that romantic love is NOT the most important of types of love. Some essays I enjoyed less and couldn't connect to, but as a whole, this book spoke to me on a deep level. A beautiful, at times vivid, contemplative book, that I will return to again and again when I feel loveless. Because I am most definitely not.
Second read: September 28th, 2020-October 28th, 2020, 4 stars
One thing about love is that it is so universal and written about so often, but the fact that people continue to create art about love and it offers new perspective and new insights is just wonderful. The fact that there are no limits and that people keep coming up with new insights, love is boundless and endless, which the reader will see in this anthology. I thought that I exhausted reading and seeing art about love, but Rookie on Love is an anthology that takes what is written about frequently and goes to places that are profound and philosophical, but also at times really fun and interesting. For an anthology about love, this was a strong and powerful mixed-medium art piece that had many different perspectives about different topics. The reader gets the "basic romantic love story", but this anthology is way more than that. It takes the readers to many different places. It definitely took me there and sometimes I was tearing up and feeling very strong emotions, sometimes I felt heard. Rookie on Love will give strength and hope to so many people, especially teenage girls (the audience), allowing them to see the love in their everyday lives and from the people around them.
Against Love Stories by Sally Wen Mao was a highlight for me with its gorgeous and vivid language, it was deep and contemplative, and I enjoyed getting lost in Sally's thoughts and the world that she created.
Overall, I highly enjoyed this book, especially how it has poetry, essays, comics, and other different mediums. It was interesting as well to read about different topics relating to love and people's thoughts on that. I want to revisit this book in the future, because I enjoyed it so much and feel like I got a lot out of reading it.
(One side note is that I like how it has sections that include parts of literature or history, those parts came together in the writings and just added something. I also learned a lot in general.)
First read: May 12th, 2018-May 17th, 2018, 4 stars
To touch on one subject that is written a ton about and to have me come away with new ways of thinking and new perspectives is something to be excited about. Even though this book was about love, a topic I try and avoid it in fiction, I found myself thoroughly enjoying this anthology. It was about love, but it was about more than love. The surface level that we all know, of romantic love, this book made me realize I am surrounded in love, bathed in love, because I have my family and I have myself. I may not be dating anyone, but this book made me realize that romantic love is NOT the most important of types of love. Some essays I enjoyed less and couldn't connect to, but as a whole, this book spoke to me on a deep level. A beautiful, at times vivid, contemplative book, that I will return to again and again when I feel loveless. Because I am most definitely not.
Second read: September 28th, 2020-October 28th, 2020, 4 stars
One thing about love is that it is so universal and written about so often, but the fact that people continue to create art about love and it offers new perspective and new insights is just wonderful. The fact that there are no limits and that people keep coming up with new insights, love is boundless and endless, which the reader will see in this anthology. I thought that I exhausted reading and seeing art about love, but Rookie on Love is an anthology that takes what is written about frequently and goes to places that are profound and philosophical, but also at times really fun and interesting. For an anthology about love, this was a strong and powerful mixed-medium art piece that had many different perspectives about different topics. The reader gets the "basic romantic love story", but this anthology is way more than that. It takes the readers to many different places. It definitely took me there and sometimes I was tearing up and feeling very strong emotions, sometimes I felt heard. Rookie on Love will give strength and hope to so many people, especially teenage girls (the audience), allowing them to see the love in their everyday lives and from the people around them.
Against Love Stories by Sally Wen Mao was a highlight for me with its gorgeous and vivid language, it was deep and contemplative, and I enjoyed getting lost in Sally's thoughts and the world that she created.
Overall, I highly enjoyed this book, especially how it has poetry, essays, comics, and other different mediums. It was interesting as well to read about different topics relating to love and people's thoughts on that. I want to revisit this book in the future, because I enjoyed it so much and feel like I got a lot out of reading it.
(One side note is that I like how it has sections that include parts of literature or history, those parts came together in the writings and just added something. I also learned a lot in general.)
March 24, 2018
I love the Rookie books and make a point of collecting every single one. Each Rookie Yearbook promised different stories, poems, and comics about various parts of growing up, and the formatting made for an aesthetically-pleasing read. Although I was somewhat excited to see that Rookie was continuing to branch off and make new books, the format of this new book, for me, was entirely different--and kind of paling in comparison to the Rookie Yearbook's glory.
Instead of a wide, colorful book filled with pictures and a lot of different diverse articles, we have a small, paperback-sized anthology all on the same subject-- this one being "Love". At first, I was excited. After all, it was another Rookie book! The format itself seemed interesting, but the issue with it was that with a format such as this one, you were putting a lot of pressure on the essays and poems themselves rather than just the surrounding aesthetics, unlike previous Rookie books, and this book appears to look like one you'd read cover-to-cover, unlike preview Rookie books which felt more like a magazine where you would read the articles that stood out to you and pick and choose. The problem with this is that the essays and stories had to be impressive in order to gain and keep a reader's attention--and for this book, 75% of them were not very interesting.
Although I can usually connect with Rookie books, this one offered only a few works which actually resonated with me. The personal essays about the individual's struggles with love, etc., were ones that I especially could not bring myself to enjoy. The prose itself was beautiful but at times too poetical, taking away from the actual story the person was telling. At other times I felt like I was slogging through a swamp of foreign references and angsty analogies. I don't mean to sound rude, as I admire any writers and contributors who got their work published in here, but there was just a LOT of essays with this kind of flowery writing I couldn't connect to.
The parts I did enjoy were the informative "advice"-type essays which were straightforward and thoughtful, e.g. "Under Pressure" by Victoria Chiu or "How to Confess Your Crush" by Krista Burton. A few of the poems were good as well--"Postcards from Apollo 6" by Lena Blackmon being my favourite. However, these were few and far between, and the personal essays took up a good three-fourths of the book.
It wasn't my favourite read and I am missing the old Rookie Yearbooks already. Still, it is worth at least three stars for its creativity, uniqueness and the fact it's another Rookie book.
Instead of a wide, colorful book filled with pictures and a lot of different diverse articles, we have a small, paperback-sized anthology all on the same subject-- this one being "Love". At first, I was excited. After all, it was another Rookie book! The format itself seemed interesting, but the issue with it was that with a format such as this one, you were putting a lot of pressure on the essays and poems themselves rather than just the surrounding aesthetics, unlike previous Rookie books, and this book appears to look like one you'd read cover-to-cover, unlike preview Rookie books which felt more like a magazine where you would read the articles that stood out to you and pick and choose. The problem with this is that the essays and stories had to be impressive in order to gain and keep a reader's attention--and for this book, 75% of them were not very interesting.
Although I can usually connect with Rookie books, this one offered only a few works which actually resonated with me. The personal essays about the individual's struggles with love, etc., were ones that I especially could not bring myself to enjoy. The prose itself was beautiful but at times too poetical, taking away from the actual story the person was telling. At other times I felt like I was slogging through a swamp of foreign references and angsty analogies. I don't mean to sound rude, as I admire any writers and contributors who got their work published in here, but there was just a LOT of essays with this kind of flowery writing I couldn't connect to.
The parts I did enjoy were the informative "advice"-type essays which were straightforward and thoughtful, e.g. "Under Pressure" by Victoria Chiu or "How to Confess Your Crush" by Krista Burton. A few of the poems were good as well--"Postcards from Apollo 6" by Lena Blackmon being my favourite. However, these were few and far between, and the personal essays took up a good three-fourths of the book.
It wasn't my favourite read and I am missing the old Rookie Yearbooks already. Still, it is worth at least three stars for its creativity, uniqueness and the fact it's another Rookie book.
January 29, 2018
Really, really enjoyed this. As expected, I got a lot more out of some essays than others. But this is a perfect collection of stories and essays for teenagers and twenty-somethings. I'll be re-reading it again for sure! Some of the essays were incredibly beautifully written, inspiring, concise and made me reflect on THINGS, MANY THINGS.
April 17, 2018
DISCLAIMER: I did not read every single story in this anthology. My rating is based on the stories I chose to read. I truthfully only picked up this book because of a few specifics authors, and I decided to read the stories that I was excited about. I browsed through the rest of the book and also read some others that caught my attention. Something that I thought was REALLY cool is that the book featured different storytelling techniques like illustrated stories (graphic novel style), poetry, and even conversations between people. Some of the content seemed to be too aimed at adolescents for me, but I think this is really great for readers in middle and high school. However, there is content for us older kids too. The whole thing is set up pretty cool with all the different authors and storytelling styles. I would recommend it based on what I read.
June 26, 2018
I've got to say that I am a bit disappointed with this collection, I just didn't care for much of the essays or stories. Don't get me wrong, I really liked like ten of them but the rest didn't do much for me, I even skimmed through some of the long ones. This just wasn't what I expected, it didn't feel like a book about love or self care, it felt like random toxic stories. This was supposed to be helpful, it had the potential to be so much more but it lacked love.
January 18, 2019
I love love love Rookie with all my anxious queer rambling moody constantly invalidated teenage heart - first platform I ever found, as a preteen, that allowed me and encouraged me, even, to be a fully fledged person rather than the vague, glittering, boring contour of a Teenage Girl. Lived my girlhood on Rookie's website, in their books, in Tavi's words - certainly my religion of sorts. ANYWAYS. I love the Rookie Yearbooks and I loved them much more than this collection. Some of the writing was excellent and had that inimitable Rookie quality (can't define it but it exists) that I love so much. Yet a lot of it severely lacked for me, and I felt that the editorial team could've been much more selective or more scrupulous with the editing - some of these pieces were not of the full-bodied, raw kind of sincerity and quality that I'm so accustomed to Rookie possessing in spades. I don't mean to be pretentious at all. I just really wanted more and I left the book a bit disappointed.
January 5, 2018
I wish I had this book as a teenager! It’s perfect for when you’re feeling confused or overwhelmed about the meaning of platonic and romantic relationships. Through poems, illustrations, & heartfelt pieces by women of all ages “Rookie on Love” gives the reader courage & confidence to get them through the end of adolescence.
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June 25, 2018– Rookie on Love questions what it means to love and be loved. –
ROOKIE!
It's the answer to what my once teenage self needed, and the best digital magazine for young women. The voice of Rookie is one of a friend articulated in pixels and print. It’s teenagers writing for teenagers. Women writing for women. When I learnt of their newest collection, Rookie On Love, I was giddy with anticipation. Unlike Rookie’s first four books – huge multimedia ‘yearbooks’ that compiled the best art and writing from their site – Rookie on Love is an easy paperback of original essays, interviews, stories, poetry, and comics on the heart's most powerful emotion, love.
What does it mean to write ‘on love’. A brief that is, all at once, simple and simply terrifying. Singer-songwriter Mitski Miyawaki wrote about her love for music. Actress Marlo Thomas wrote on finding love in all facets of her life. Durga Chew-Bose wrote about her love for her dog.
Britney Franco’s essay ‘Only Shallow’ chronicles a relationship and questions what it means to truly know someone else. She writes in the second person, so every ‘you’ she spoke of made me feel like it was a version of myself who was falling in love the way that teenagers do. Not in the way we see in movies or on television, but in small and mundane ways – watching one another in physics class, skateboarding, sitting in adolescent bedrooms (posters on the walls, crumbs in the sheets) listening to music. The kind of love that spans the era of high school – defined by hours, days, weeks, semesters, years.
I found my mind mostly musing on the poetry that peppers the collection. ‘Astaghfirullah: A Kiss Before Dying’ by Bassey Ikpi is an ode to sex and sexuality, Florence Welch’s simple yet startling poem ‘Monster’ speaks of the nature of creativity, and how we take intimate moments, late night conversations and articulate them in art. And Marina Sage Carlstroem’s poem ‘2am at the Ramen Shop and I’m Trying to Say I Love You’ is a reminder of how intimacy finds us in unlikely places.
If I was to write on love, maybe I’d find myself sifting through my journals seeing what I wrote about again and again and again. My love of reading, of writing, my love for my best friend, my husband, the love that lies in the banter and bicker of time spent with my siblings. Maybe my love for teaching, for coffee in the mornings. Or my love for riding my bike home in the middle of a summer’s night, drunk and wild and free. I don’t know what I would write about if I was to write on love, but Rookie On Love reminded me of the love that leaks like light into my life.
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This review was first published on Narrative Muse,http://narrativemuse.co/books/rookie-..., and was written by Laura Oosterbeek. Narrative Muse curates the best books and movies by and about women and non-binary folk on our website http://narrativemuse.co and our social media channels.
ROOKIE!
It's the answer to what my once teenage self needed, and the best digital magazine for young women. The voice of Rookie is one of a friend articulated in pixels and print. It’s teenagers writing for teenagers. Women writing for women. When I learnt of their newest collection, Rookie On Love, I was giddy with anticipation. Unlike Rookie’s first four books – huge multimedia ‘yearbooks’ that compiled the best art and writing from their site – Rookie on Love is an easy paperback of original essays, interviews, stories, poetry, and comics on the heart's most powerful emotion, love.
What does it mean to write ‘on love’. A brief that is, all at once, simple and simply terrifying. Singer-songwriter Mitski Miyawaki wrote about her love for music. Actress Marlo Thomas wrote on finding love in all facets of her life. Durga Chew-Bose wrote about her love for her dog.
Britney Franco’s essay ‘Only Shallow’ chronicles a relationship and questions what it means to truly know someone else. She writes in the second person, so every ‘you’ she spoke of made me feel like it was a version of myself who was falling in love the way that teenagers do. Not in the way we see in movies or on television, but in small and mundane ways – watching one another in physics class, skateboarding, sitting in adolescent bedrooms (posters on the walls, crumbs in the sheets) listening to music. The kind of love that spans the era of high school – defined by hours, days, weeks, semesters, years.
I found my mind mostly musing on the poetry that peppers the collection. ‘Astaghfirullah: A Kiss Before Dying’ by Bassey Ikpi is an ode to sex and sexuality, Florence Welch’s simple yet startling poem ‘Monster’ speaks of the nature of creativity, and how we take intimate moments, late night conversations and articulate them in art. And Marina Sage Carlstroem’s poem ‘2am at the Ramen Shop and I’m Trying to Say I Love You’ is a reminder of how intimacy finds us in unlikely places.
If I was to write on love, maybe I’d find myself sifting through my journals seeing what I wrote about again and again and again. My love of reading, of writing, my love for my best friend, my husband, the love that lies in the banter and bicker of time spent with my siblings. Maybe my love for teaching, for coffee in the mornings. Or my love for riding my bike home in the middle of a summer’s night, drunk and wild and free. I don’t know what I would write about if I was to write on love, but Rookie On Love reminded me of the love that leaks like light into my life.
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This review was first published on Narrative Muse,http://narrativemuse.co/books/rookie-..., and was written by Laura Oosterbeek. Narrative Muse curates the best books and movies by and about women and non-binary folk on our website http://narrativemuse.co and our social media channels.
August 25, 2018
While this collection is diverse and interesting enough to an adult reader ... this is pretty inaccessible to the intended teenage audience. Teenage readers are not going to slog through intellectualized self evicerations about some adult musing about their 20something love screw up. They aren’t going to take time to look up or understand the use of words like ontological. This should have targeted college students and other emerging adults - not teens.
And according to the third story presented, you can’t see past versions of websites .... but you can ... just use the Internet Archive’s Way Back Machine if you’re interested .. it’s free. https://archive.org/web/
And according to the third story presented, you can’t see past versions of websites .... but you can ... just use the Internet Archive’s Way Back Machine if you’re interested .. it’s free. https://archive.org/web/
April 1, 2025
Rookie Mag was such an important part of my teenage years and I was so excited and nostalgic when I saw this book at the library, I had no idea it existed!!
I was excited to see that Mitski, Florence Welch, Jenny Zhang and Sarah Manguso were featured in this collection.
I think the book started off really strong and then teetered off. Maybe it’s because I’m ten years over the target audience but some of these short stories/essays were a bit overwritten.
Overall it was nice to have a little nostalgia moment and I wish this had been published while I was still in high school, I would have loved it back then.
I was excited to see that Mitski, Florence Welch, Jenny Zhang and Sarah Manguso were featured in this collection.
I think the book started off really strong and then teetered off. Maybe it’s because I’m ten years over the target audience but some of these short stories/essays were a bit overwritten.
Overall it was nice to have a little nostalgia moment and I wish this had been published while I was still in high school, I would have loved it back then.
March 11, 2018
i LOVED the rookie yearbooks and was so excited to get this book from the library. but it's strangely boring? which really surprised me? i'm about halfway through and don't think i'm going to finish. i don't know how a collection of essays on an interesting topic written by talented writers can be so boring. but...it is.
March 20, 2020
I really wanted to love this; I used to love Rookie and I thought this book would be a nice culmination of the kinds of writing I used to find on the site. The pieces that I liked best were the longer, more developed writings, and the comics. Most of the essays were just too short for me to really get into sadly, and I felt like a lot of it didn't really have a point. It was fine to read intermittently and I would recommend it as something light between heavier things.
November 5, 2018
It was like a chicken soup for the soul book and it was super cute and refreshing.
January 26, 2021
faves: you first, memory is an angel who can fly no more, book love, centripetal force, before I started writing these things directly to you, from spark to bonfire, radiance
October 18, 2021
3.5 stars
I bookmarked about 5 of the essays/stories that I thought were really good. The rest were also good but just didn’t hit me the same way :)
I bookmarked about 5 of the essays/stories that I thought were really good. The rest were also good but just didn’t hit me the same way :)
August 20, 2018
I was waiting for more I guess. I enjoyed poetry inside and some of the story/essay. But not all was fit for me I guess.
I think this is still a interesting book when you want to read small essay :)
I think this is still a interesting book when you want to read small essay :)
March 17, 2021
Wow. I’m floored. I love the representation in writing + the range of media used to unpack this simple yet complex concept/emotion. I also have not related to a piece this much in a long time as I related to “Against Love Stories” by Sally Wen Mao!
December 27, 2019
Rookie 4ever
August 16, 2018
Hit or Miss. Favorite essays were “Against Love Stories”, and “Past Exposures”.
September 17, 2023
As it usually is with Rookie essays… some were a miss, a lot of them were hits. Really loved Maria Popova’s “Radiance”, Tavi Gevinson’s “Before I Started Writing These Directly to You”, Jazmine Hughes’ “Do Sisters Actually Love Each Other?” (Which made me miss my girlfriends 🥹), and especially Collier Meyerson’s “Past Exposure”… enough to make me reach out to Meyerson (she replied!!!)
November 6, 2018
This anthology has A LOT of stories, and there are some real gems here, especially the Tova Benjamin, Etgar Keret, Gabourey Sidibe, the Rainbow Rowell and John Green conversation, Sally Wen Mo, & Bhanu Kapil.
March 11, 2018
Reviewed at: http://www.queenofteenfiction.co.uk/2...
This is a book that really does have something to offer to everyone. A collection of works from various writers and artists, Rookie on Love is packed with a variety of recollections, observations, poems, and even comics, regarding the topic of love. Considering I focus so much on reading fiction, it was refreshing to pick this one up and enjoy something different.
Despite the book revolving around love, it's not just focused on romantic love. Whilst there are stories of heartbreak and love gone wrong, it also explores family dynamics, our relationships with our friends, and even the love we have for our pets. With relatable writing throughout, there's bound to be something within these pages that you can relate to a little.
This gorgeously designed book has adorable illustrations throughout, which make it even more special. The comic strip pages were an unexpected surprise that I adored! Especially, OMG, Yay! which focused on small, positive parts of an average day that can make us happy. It's such a cute idea that me smile.
I won't lie, my favourite work within Rookie on Love is Willis, a devotional to dogs. It's only a few pages long, but it really makes you think about the love our pets have for us, and how much their lives revolve around our decisions. It made my emotional, dog-loving self go and give my own dog the biggest of cuddles.
Do Sisters Actually Love Each Other? is an interesting piece about sibling relationships and how they evolve. The fact that it's told via text was interesting and made it even more fun to read. I also loved Binary Planets, in which twins Ogechi and Ugochi discuss their experiences growing up. It was fascinating to take this sort of look into the lives of others.
Another one of my favourites is the conversation between Rainbow Rowell and John Green about writing teen love. It was great to read their thoughts about why they write their love stories the way that they do. Other highlights include a poem by Florence Welch and a piece by Alessia Cara on learning how to love herself first and foremost.
With such an interesting bunch of pieces from a wonderfully diverse set of contributors, Rookie on Love is the uplifting read that I needed. It's one that can be picked up and delved into anytime, and one with works I'll be sure to go back to and read over again in the future.
This is a book that really does have something to offer to everyone. A collection of works from various writers and artists, Rookie on Love is packed with a variety of recollections, observations, poems, and even comics, regarding the topic of love. Considering I focus so much on reading fiction, it was refreshing to pick this one up and enjoy something different.
Despite the book revolving around love, it's not just focused on romantic love. Whilst there are stories of heartbreak and love gone wrong, it also explores family dynamics, our relationships with our friends, and even the love we have for our pets. With relatable writing throughout, there's bound to be something within these pages that you can relate to a little.
This gorgeously designed book has adorable illustrations throughout, which make it even more special. The comic strip pages were an unexpected surprise that I adored! Especially, OMG, Yay! which focused on small, positive parts of an average day that can make us happy. It's such a cute idea that me smile.
I won't lie, my favourite work within Rookie on Love is Willis, a devotional to dogs. It's only a few pages long, but it really makes you think about the love our pets have for us, and how much their lives revolve around our decisions. It made my emotional, dog-loving self go and give my own dog the biggest of cuddles.
Do Sisters Actually Love Each Other? is an interesting piece about sibling relationships and how they evolve. The fact that it's told via text was interesting and made it even more fun to read. I also loved Binary Planets, in which twins Ogechi and Ugochi discuss their experiences growing up. It was fascinating to take this sort of look into the lives of others.
Another one of my favourites is the conversation between Rainbow Rowell and John Green about writing teen love. It was great to read their thoughts about why they write their love stories the way that they do. Other highlights include a poem by Florence Welch and a piece by Alessia Cara on learning how to love herself first and foremost.
With such an interesting bunch of pieces from a wonderfully diverse set of contributors, Rookie on Love is the uplifting read that I needed. It's one that can be picked up and delved into anytime, and one with works I'll be sure to go back to and read over again in the future.
March 23, 2018
Rookie On Love is an anthology of essays, poems, comics, and interviews focusing on the many facets of love. It is a collection of approximately fifty contributions from a selected myriad authors and artists around. This collection is the exploration of love and the many aspects of love from unrequited love, to friendship, to familial love, to loving yourself, to falling in love, and so on.
Perhaps my expectations for this anthology were too high, but I was a tad disappointed by this collection. There were only a few pieces that I really enjoyed – some of the poetry went over my head, but then again, I'm not really a poetry kind of person, but I had to pause and think really hard about some of the poetry to make sense of it.
There were some pieces that I really did enjoy (listed in alphabetical order): Shania Amolik ("Maybe One Day"), Tova Benjamin ("Fwd: Letter to Leyb"), Krista Burton ("How to Confess Your Crush"), Victoria Chiu ("Under Pressure"), Tavi Gevinson ("Before I Started Writing These Tings Directly to You"), John Green/Rainbow Rowell interview ("Super Into a Person's Person-ness"), Jazmine Hughes ("Do Sisters Actually Love Each Other?"), Etgar Keret ("The Most Exciting Moment of Alma's Life"), Jackie Wang ("Memory Is an Angel Who Can Fly No More"), Jenny Zhang ("Beyond Self-Respect"), and that's all I can think of at this moment.
Like most anthologies there are weaker contributions, and unfortunately there seems to be more of them than not, but then again, I didn't really connect to most of the offerings. Furthermore, some of the essays started out rather good, but was significantly weaken by the end. Perhaps, I will give this anthology another read when I experience more of the pains and joys of love – then again, perhaps not.
All in all, I think Rookie on Love is a somewhat decent and satisfactory collection of works, although I don't think that I was main target audience for this collection, but love is supposed to be universal and I think anyone could pick it up – even outside of its target audience.
Perhaps my expectations for this anthology were too high, but I was a tad disappointed by this collection. There were only a few pieces that I really enjoyed – some of the poetry went over my head, but then again, I'm not really a poetry kind of person, but I had to pause and think really hard about some of the poetry to make sense of it.
There were some pieces that I really did enjoy (listed in alphabetical order): Shania Amolik ("Maybe One Day"), Tova Benjamin ("Fwd: Letter to Leyb"), Krista Burton ("How to Confess Your Crush"), Victoria Chiu ("Under Pressure"), Tavi Gevinson ("Before I Started Writing These Tings Directly to You"), John Green/Rainbow Rowell interview ("Super Into a Person's Person-ness"), Jazmine Hughes ("Do Sisters Actually Love Each Other?"), Etgar Keret ("The Most Exciting Moment of Alma's Life"), Jackie Wang ("Memory Is an Angel Who Can Fly No More"), Jenny Zhang ("Beyond Self-Respect"), and that's all I can think of at this moment.
Like most anthologies there are weaker contributions, and unfortunately there seems to be more of them than not, but then again, I didn't really connect to most of the offerings. Furthermore, some of the essays started out rather good, but was significantly weaken by the end. Perhaps, I will give this anthology another read when I experience more of the pains and joys of love – then again, perhaps not.
All in all, I think Rookie on Love is a somewhat decent and satisfactory collection of works, although I don't think that I was main target audience for this collection, but love is supposed to be universal and I think anyone could pick it up – even outside of its target audience.
February 5, 2018
RTC!!
2/5/18; Full review:https://mindofabookdragon.wordpress.c...
This was a really nice digestable read. It was SO RELATABLE on so many counts. I love how there were so many different people involved in the making of this book. One of my favorite pieces was the poem For Amy and other women carrying around chaos by Bassey Ikpi. I love the flow and the word choice.
This was a great mix of different media. While all of it is written, there are a lot of different forms of expression here. Essays, poems, and the little drawings within each were amazing. I don’t usually read introductions, but this one I did for some reason. I think that really helped shape what I was expecting going into this book. I found that Gevinson’s style is one that I mesh well with, so I’ll be checking into some of her other pieces.
To be completely honest, I had never heard of Rookie before this blog tour, so my initial interest in the title had very little to do with Tavi Gevinson being the editor. That being said, this was a great introduction to the kinds of pieces she puts out. I never felt like I had to know about Rookie in order to understand the book.
Rookie on Love was a quick little piece. I felt like each section was a perfect length. This is perfect for someone who tires of reading really long books. I could read multiple in one sitting and feel accomplished because I finished so many at once.
2/5/18; Full review:https://mindofabookdragon.wordpress.c...
This was a really nice digestable read. It was SO RELATABLE on so many counts. I love how there were so many different people involved in the making of this book. One of my favorite pieces was the poem For Amy and other women carrying around chaos by Bassey Ikpi. I love the flow and the word choice.
This was a great mix of different media. While all of it is written, there are a lot of different forms of expression here. Essays, poems, and the little drawings within each were amazing. I don’t usually read introductions, but this one I did for some reason. I think that really helped shape what I was expecting going into this book. I found that Gevinson’s style is one that I mesh well with, so I’ll be checking into some of her other pieces.
To be completely honest, I had never heard of Rookie before this blog tour, so my initial interest in the title had very little to do with Tavi Gevinson being the editor. That being said, this was a great introduction to the kinds of pieces she puts out. I never felt like I had to know about Rookie in order to understand the book.
Rookie on Love was a quick little piece. I felt like each section was a perfect length. This is perfect for someone who tires of reading really long books. I could read multiple in one sitting and feel accomplished because I finished so many at once.
August 13, 2018
This was one of the best books I’ve read in 2018 (marking 42/60 books).
I have so many reasons to praise and recommend this read, from the small and logical to the feels and sense of “being understood”.
This format is different than past large set yearbooks from rookie. This book was smaller, set more like a novel with a congruent colour palette and structure. Easy to follow and clear in theme. Showing that rookie ages well like a fine wine.
The short essays, poems and comics from a variety of contributors allows for someone who is a “occasional reader” and also for a change in perspective. Rookie on Love covers such an expanse of experience and feelings in such a powerful way.
The feels? As a kid who grew up in a house who shyed away from verbalizing and sharing about romance — I often felt isolated and never spoke about who I dated or had crushes on with my siblings or parents. I wish this book had existed then, so young me would have had a mentor.
Even now, adult me is grateful for this book. It is a reminder you never will completely unlock friendship, self-love, and dating but continue learning along the journey. I need to buy this and keep it on my shelf to revisit over and over.
I have so many reasons to praise and recommend this read, from the small and logical to the feels and sense of “being understood”.
This format is different than past large set yearbooks from rookie. This book was smaller, set more like a novel with a congruent colour palette and structure. Easy to follow and clear in theme. Showing that rookie ages well like a fine wine.
The short essays, poems and comics from a variety of contributors allows for someone who is a “occasional reader” and also for a change in perspective. Rookie on Love covers such an expanse of experience and feelings in such a powerful way.
The feels? As a kid who grew up in a house who shyed away from verbalizing and sharing about romance — I often felt isolated and never spoke about who I dated or had crushes on with my siblings or parents. I wish this book had existed then, so young me would have had a mentor.
Even now, adult me is grateful for this book. It is a reminder you never will completely unlock friendship, self-love, and dating but continue learning along the journey. I need to buy this and keep it on my shelf to revisit over and over.
January 20, 2018
wowza. i know rookie is marketed toward teenage girls, but many of the authors were my age (21) and older and there was definitely a ton of wisdom applicable to any age. it's been YEARS since i've absolutely devoured a 250+ book in a number of days and i'm so happy to have done that with this one. the essays are short, though sometimes i wish they were longer. some were cute and funny, while others hit home harder than i anticipated. either way, i took tons of advice from the pages and felt way less alone, because this book arrived at a time i felt pretty alienated if i'm being honest. and that's what i miss most about reading regularly: being able to get lost in the pages, to find myself in them sometimes, and to finish the book with my thoughts on certain situations/life reoriented.
i will say that it was annoying most of the book revolved around heterosexual romance, but these entries were written with such charm that i can see why they were included.
anyway, first entry for 2018! i can only hope i continue this enthusiasm for setting aside ~time to read~ that i did with this book. onward!
i will say that it was annoying most of the book revolved around heterosexual romance, but these entries were written with such charm that i can see why they were included.
anyway, first entry for 2018! i can only hope i continue this enthusiasm for setting aside ~time to read~ that i did with this book. onward!
July 23, 2018
The fact that I personally didn't completely love reading this book, in NO WAY discounts how incredibly elegant and beautiful every single piece of writing in this book was. The stories were very intense, and not necessarily written to engage the reader, but instead of convey an idea, a point, and the emotions of the author. I appreciated the conciseness of most of the stories because due to the elegance of the writing, I was forced to read them slowly to fully understand and take in the message of the author. Many of the stories, because they were more written simply to project a thought, didn't have a classic ending, where the events built up to a climax, and tied up into a neat resolution. As a reader, I was surprised when the chapters would end, but was then forced to reflect on the story's teaching. Again, I truly cannot express how beautiful and refined every single piece was in this book, and it really gave me an insight to the type of mature and cultured audience that the Rookie blog acquires. I rated this book only 3 stars because as impressive, informative, and important as the writing was, it didn't read like a classic novel, and I found to be not quite my taste.
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