BOOK REVIEW: Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton
Look, if you know me in real life, you’re probably going to be thinking ‘Hmm, since when do you read books?’. Fair enough. It is a well-known fact that I’m that girl who’d rather choose to watch a movie than read the book, and as bad as that sounds for someone who claims to be a writer, it’s something I’m bent on trying to change.
Over the years, I have fallen in and out of reading; I’ve picked up a couple of books that I have read cover to cover and thoroughly enjoyed, but I never seemed to kick into the habit of reading for some reason. I mean, I know the reasons fully well if I’m putting it all out there: partially laziness and the other is I did, like a lot of people nowadays, enjoy the instant, effortless gratification I got from other forms of entertainment. All my life, I have always enjoyed writing because it was the only proper way I knew to vent my frustrations or share my thoughts without tripping on my words and I just felt like I could hear myself clearer on paper too.
With that in mind, I’ve decided it would be a good idea to start a little series where I review the books I’ve read (hopefully) during the month. This can also be a sort of mini book club, where we chat about the books we’ve all read, and I’ll gladly take your suggestions on the next ones you think I should try.
So let’s begin…
As you can tell from the title above, the book I’ll be reviewing this month is Everything I know about Love by Dolly Alderton. I have to be honest and admit that I jumped on it – like every shiny thing on the internet – because I saw it plastered all over the web by every writer, blogger, and person who loves to read… in other words, anyone who would care to pick up a book. I purchased it off Amazon and a few days later, it was laying right in front of me on my bed; bright yellow and thick.
I picked it up the next day from my bedside table and with a track by Alessia Cara in the background, I began reading the words on the page loudly in my mind.
The book is an overly candid representation of life as a 20-something-year-old trying to navigate adulthood and all its struggles. Dolly spends no time sugar-coating any part of herself or her story in this autobiography but presents a full picture of what it is like to be human, completely messy, and have nothing figured out. It’s a book that celebrates womanhood and highlights the importance of female friendships and girls standing together and up for each other. It’s about falling in love and having your heart broken over and over again. It’s about dealing with the demons you hide with a smile and accepting that it’s okay to be truly you. It’s about realising it’s completely enough to be yourself. It’s about making bad choices that make for funny stories and learning and growing from them.
My favourite thing about this book was precisely how real it was and how easy it was to paint a precise picture of every single scenario. The writing flowed super smoothly, and it seemed like she used the perfect words and metaphors to complete each part of the story. It felt like you were seated on the side of each room she was in cheering her on, crying with her, or feeling disappointed by her decisions and feeling immense pride whenever she finally found her way. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if this book were to be used as inspiration for a Netflix series as I strongly believe it would be more than fitting.
The only criticism about this book was that I felt like the beginning was a little slow, but as soon as I began to wonder where exactly the story was headed, the whole thing began to take shape and I began to fall in love with every single character. Sorry, I’m simple like that!
LESSONS LEARNT:
- Life is complicated for everyone; everyone gets their share of pain to handle and it’s not always fair.
- You’re not going to understand every single thing that happens to you. You might never find closure on certain things or the way someone treats you. In other words, you cannot control people’s actions, but you only have power over your reactions.
- Relationships never stay the same; they change, evolve, fall apart and sometimes fall back in place. Keeping a relationship steady takes two – two willing people.
- Running away from issues will not make them disappear, it will only push them a little further into the future.
- The best people you’ll meet in life are the ones that will hold up a mirror to your face and show you the ugliest version of who you really are at the moment. They might call you out and disagree with you on a lot of things. They’ll push you to see your faults and won’t allow you to run away from responsibilities for too long. But they’ll also root for you like crazy.
- Loss will teach you what’s important in life.
- Love doesn’t happen as it does in fairy tales. In reality, it’s complicated, messy and requires some level of compromise.
- Appreciate your friends.
There you have it! As I explained in my last post, I have bought another book I have begun reading and I’m completely immersed already. What book would you recommend I drown into next?
Your restless romantic roamer
