Reviews with content warning for Drug abuse - Everything I Know About Love

My first memoir and it did not disappoint. After seeing a few of my favourite YouTubers recommend this, and a recommendation from a friend, I finally decided to pick this up and make it my first non fiction read in years, and my first ever memoir/ biography. You definitely need to relate to the author on some level to enjoy this book, as it is very personal and revolves around her (quite niche) life experiences. Having been to an all girls’ public school in London I related heavily to her views about and experiences with boys. I loved her exploration of female friendships and the love that develops and evolves as you grow from adolescence to adulthood.

I found the drug talk in the earlier chapters quite annoying as it felt glamorised and really highlighted the author’s privilege, which isn’t her fault or a bad thing necessarily but it took me out of the story a bit nonetheless. Having said that, I did appreciate her candidness.

I enjoyed the familiar and colloquial tone of the book, and found myself chuckling and even laughing at a lot of things, which I don’t do very often with books. However, she can also write deeply and insightfully, such as in her chapters about

Florence and coping with death and grief

, and when discussing her journey to self discovery.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and related heavily to the earlier bits, and could see my future self in the later stuff. If you’re not a heterosexual woman, didn’t grow up in suburbia or go to public (or private but she calls it public) school, I think you would find it difficult to enjoy this book as it might be hard to relate to the author. However, it does get more universal and reflective/ introspective in the second half so it may be worthwhile powering through to get to those bits. And if you just like the sound of reading about a woman’s personal experiences with love, friendships and self discovery, you’ll enjoy this too.

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malustedile's review against another edition

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medium-paced

2.5

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lk_2109's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

2.25

Maybe I read it at the wrong time of my life, but I found this book very boring. The recipes and e-mails were very unnecessary and not really my type of humor. I had a really hard time to finish this book and considered quitting multiple times.

I gave the books 2,25 stars cause of the last third, were dolly finally becomes a little bit more likeable. I also like the part about the eating disorder, because it felt real and vulnerable.

In my opinion, the book was definitely too long and should have been kept shorter to make it more enjoyable. As I said, a lot of unnecessary stuff like the recipes.

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claudiamacpherson's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

3.5

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clarice_flora's review against another edition

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emotional funny informative inspiring lighthearted reflective fast-paced

4.0

Funny, heartwarming, thought provoking and reflective, this books takes you by the hand and leads you through life’s questions, mistakes and dark moments. You fall into step with Dolly and her friends, sit with them round tables, groan with them, laugh with them and cry with them. Makes you look at your own life, loves and friends with fresh eyes qnd forces you to be honest and kinder to yourself. Would really recommend.

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