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msmouse 's review for:
Never Have I Ever: My Life (So Far) Without a Date
by Katie Heaney
Katie Heaney is like a lot of 20-somethings I know in that she hasn’t had much luck in the romance department. Due to a collection of missed chances and an awkward adolescence (is there any other kind?) she has not had a single date by age twenty-five. What makes her different than a lot of people who are in this situation (and I don’t think it’s quite as uncommon as she thinks) is that she’d really, really like to date.
She was one of those girls whose crushes took over their lives. Anxiety and awkwardness kept her from acting on her desires, but she was a touch obsessive. Most of the people who I know who didn’t/don’t date either didn’t want to or felt like it would happen in its own time and got on with their lives in the meantime. Heaney was less sanguine about it. To put it mildly.
This book is a collection of her attempts at romance/inter-gender socializing. She is very funny and it helps that she spends most of the book mocking herself for her antics. To be fair, it is not always her at fault for a dating situation not working out. It does take two to tango, as they say, and sometimes boys are dumb. Also, sometimes online dating is horrifying. You know exactly what I’m talking about.
One of the nice things about this book is that, while her non-existent dating life is the centre, she also features some stories from her friends who are more and less successful at this than her (depending on how one ranks success). One of her best friends is her polar opposite in this field and is someone who might be able to number her dates in triple digits. Heaney is nicely non-judgey about this which I liked. I also liked that she grew more okay with herself as a single person as she got older. At one point her friends were pressuring her to date someone in particular. She said no and was okay with her decision because she trusted her instincts and didn’t feel like she needed to date this person just to have dated someone. An important take-away lesson I thought.
Never Have I Ever is peppered with references that anyone born in the late 80’s or the 90’s in general will get, the title being a good example. A lot of her experiences are relatable. I found myself thinking over high school incidents that I hadn’t thought of in years. I’m not sure if that’s good or bad, but it is a credit to Ms. Heaney’s writing ability.
Overall, I enjoyed her account. I tended to get annoyed by girls who were obsessed with their significant other in high school and I find that hasn’t changed. It may have made me a touch unsympathetic to Heaney’s plight, but it also put me in her corner when she described the outsider-looking-in feeling her friends would sometimes give her.
3 stars.
She was one of those girls whose crushes took over their lives. Anxiety and awkwardness kept her from acting on her desires, but she was a touch obsessive. Most of the people who I know who didn’t/don’t date either didn’t want to or felt like it would happen in its own time and got on with their lives in the meantime. Heaney was less sanguine about it. To put it mildly.
This book is a collection of her attempts at romance/inter-gender socializing. She is very funny and it helps that she spends most of the book mocking herself for her antics. To be fair, it is not always her at fault for a dating situation not working out. It does take two to tango, as they say, and sometimes boys are dumb. Also, sometimes online dating is horrifying. You know exactly what I’m talking about.
One of the nice things about this book is that, while her non-existent dating life is the centre, she also features some stories from her friends who are more and less successful at this than her (depending on how one ranks success). One of her best friends is her polar opposite in this field and is someone who might be able to number her dates in triple digits. Heaney is nicely non-judgey about this which I liked. I also liked that she grew more okay with herself as a single person as she got older. At one point her friends were pressuring her to date someone in particular. She said no and was okay with her decision because she trusted her instincts and didn’t feel like she needed to date this person just to have dated someone. An important take-away lesson I thought.
Never Have I Ever is peppered with references that anyone born in the late 80’s or the 90’s in general will get, the title being a good example. A lot of her experiences are relatable. I found myself thinking over high school incidents that I hadn’t thought of in years. I’m not sure if that’s good or bad, but it is a credit to Ms. Heaney’s writing ability.
Overall, I enjoyed her account. I tended to get annoyed by girls who were obsessed with their significant other in high school and I find that hasn’t changed. It may have made me a touch unsympathetic to Heaney’s plight, but it also put me in her corner when she described the outsider-looking-in feeling her friends would sometimes give her.
3 stars.