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A review by amber_lea84
A Sucky Love Story: Overcoming Unhappily Ever After by Brittani Louise Taylor
4.0
I had no idea who Brittani Louise Taylor was before I saw her on youtube talking about nearly getting kidnapped into human trafficking by her fiance.
I watched kind of a lot of Brittani's videos while I waited for this book to come in and I found some of her videos kind of scattered and rambly. On top of that, I was annoyed that most new videos were a kickbaity advertisement for this book. So my impression of Brittani wasn’t the best going in. I also noticed this book wasn't getting good reviews. As a result, my expectations were low.
But having read it, I agree with a lot of the positive things I've heard. I read this book almost entirely in one sitting, and I didn't find Brittani nearly as scattered and rambly in print as I did in her videos. She does write like she talks, but I think it works. I don't know why people (her fans?) are trashing her writing. I was expecting to be really put off by it and I wasn't. It feels a lot like sitting there while your friend tells you a crazy story. Sometimes her attempts to be cute are cringy, but that's Brittani man. She's mildly annoying, but in an endearing way. That is her whole shtick: She's a dork.
If you're expecting something other than Brittani Louise Taylor being herself you're gonna have a bad time. I feel confused by the fact that anyone would expect anything else.
Writing aside, this book isn't perfect. There are definitely some minor inconsistencies, but I imagine that's because Brittani can only guess at what Milos's motivations were and she’s still processing everything. She and her mom were also weirdly generous toward Milos. They're both positive and upbeat to a fault. And she seemingly glossed over some things. Like the part where she packed up all Milos's stuff and tried to kick him out felt a bit odd because she had been saying so many positive things about him up until that point. I got the impression she saw unsavory things in him before that but didn’t mention them.
But sharing such a messy story isn't easy. How do you even tell a story like this? I think she did her best. It’s not an objective account. It’s her account, told in her voice, as she was seeing it at the time that she wrote it. It might be helpful to look at it as a window into the mind of someone going through a really bad time and trying to sort it out as best she can. She's not writing about it 10 years later. This just happened. It's probably still happening. It takes years and years to really process something like this. It sucks that people are taking away, “She’s so immature” or “She didn’t seem to learn much from this.” She’s clearly a little behind the average person when it comes to certain life experiences, but I love her for being honest about things that are embarrassing. It’s easy to present yourself as more knowledgeable in hindsight to protect your ego/image and she doesn’t do that. I think that’s admirable. She’s like, “I was naive, LEARN from me.” She is exactly the kind of person who gets targeted by people like Milos. To be like, “err, she’s dumb” is to miss the point.
Also, the fact that people are getting all butthurt about her "slut shaming" is just...whatever. She's giving us a window into her head space. I don't think she should be shamed for being a prude or immature because it gives us insight into how she ended up here, but the wrongthink crowd is all over it. I wish these people could take a break from needing everyone to be their personal role model.
Also, people are saying that they're disappointed that she got so upset that Milos was looking at porn, but it wasn't just looking at porn...he was interacting with cam girls while he said he was studying. Brittani was killing herself trying to take care of the baby and supporting them both, and he kept yelling at her about how hard he was studying. If your take away is, "oh my god, she's so regressive, yay 4 porn"...wut. My take away wasn't that Brittani cares if YOU look at porn - maybe she does, maybe she doesn't - it's that she cared that Milos was secretly looking at porn. To her it was cheating, and also, no matter how to look at it, he was lying.
I also think the contrast of the book cover and the subject matter fits with Brittani’s personality. She could have easily made a much more serious and somber book cover, but that would feel even weirder. She is tragically upbeat. She tries so hard to be positive throughout this entire book. I think relentless positivity is obviously her coping mechanism.
Anyway, my biggest disappointment with this book is that I didn't get the answers I was looking for. She pretty much said it all, and maybe more, when she talked to Shane. I thought I was going to learn something about why the FBI was looking into Milos, but the FBI never enters into it. I'm guessing because all that happened after the book was written, or maybe she wasn't allowed to talk about it, but either way, there's nothing about it here. So you shouldn't go into it expecting to learn more if you saw Shane's video, but I think it’s still worth reading.
I watched kind of a lot of Brittani's videos while I waited for this book to come in and I found some of her videos kind of scattered and rambly. On top of that, I was annoyed that most new videos were a kickbaity advertisement for this book. So my impression of Brittani wasn’t the best going in. I also noticed this book wasn't getting good reviews. As a result, my expectations were low.
But having read it, I agree with a lot of the positive things I've heard. I read this book almost entirely in one sitting, and I didn't find Brittani nearly as scattered and rambly in print as I did in her videos. She does write like she talks, but I think it works. I don't know why people (her fans?) are trashing her writing. I was expecting to be really put off by it and I wasn't. It feels a lot like sitting there while your friend tells you a crazy story. Sometimes her attempts to be cute are cringy, but that's Brittani man. She's mildly annoying, but in an endearing way. That is her whole shtick: She's a dork.
If you're expecting something other than Brittani Louise Taylor being herself you're gonna have a bad time. I feel confused by the fact that anyone would expect anything else.
Writing aside, this book isn't perfect. There are definitely some minor inconsistencies, but I imagine that's because Brittani can only guess at what Milos's motivations were and she’s still processing everything. She and her mom were also weirdly generous toward Milos. They're both positive and upbeat to a fault. And she seemingly glossed over some things. Like the part where she packed up all Milos's stuff and tried to kick him out felt a bit odd because she had been saying so many positive things about him up until that point. I got the impression she saw unsavory things in him before that but didn’t mention them.
But sharing such a messy story isn't easy. How do you even tell a story like this? I think she did her best. It’s not an objective account. It’s her account, told in her voice, as she was seeing it at the time that she wrote it. It might be helpful to look at it as a window into the mind of someone going through a really bad time and trying to sort it out as best she can. She's not writing about it 10 years later. This just happened. It's probably still happening. It takes years and years to really process something like this. It sucks that people are taking away, “She’s so immature” or “She didn’t seem to learn much from this.” She’s clearly a little behind the average person when it comes to certain life experiences, but I love her for being honest about things that are embarrassing. It’s easy to present yourself as more knowledgeable in hindsight to protect your ego/image and she doesn’t do that. I think that’s admirable. She’s like, “I was naive, LEARN from me.” She is exactly the kind of person who gets targeted by people like Milos. To be like, “err, she’s dumb” is to miss the point.
Also, the fact that people are getting all butthurt about her "slut shaming" is just...whatever. She's giving us a window into her head space. I don't think she should be shamed for being a prude or immature because it gives us insight into how she ended up here, but the wrongthink crowd is all over it. I wish these people could take a break from needing everyone to be their personal role model.
Spoiler
It's crazy to me that anyone would think, "I feel judged by a 30 year old virgin." Oh, okay.Also, people are saying that they're disappointed that she got so upset that Milos was looking at porn, but it wasn't just looking at porn...he was interacting with cam girls while he said he was studying. Brittani was killing herself trying to take care of the baby and supporting them both, and he kept yelling at her about how hard he was studying. If your take away is, "oh my god, she's so regressive, yay 4 porn"...wut. My take away wasn't that Brittani cares if YOU look at porn - maybe she does, maybe she doesn't - it's that she cared that Milos was secretly looking at porn. To her it was cheating, and also, no matter how to look at it, he was lying.
I also think the contrast of the book cover and the subject matter fits with Brittani’s personality. She could have easily made a much more serious and somber book cover, but that would feel even weirder. She is tragically upbeat. She tries so hard to be positive throughout this entire book. I think relentless positivity is obviously her coping mechanism.
Anyway, my biggest disappointment with this book is that I didn't get the answers I was looking for. She pretty much said it all, and maybe more, when she talked to Shane. I thought I was going to learn something about why the FBI was looking into Milos, but the FBI never enters into it. I'm guessing because all that happened after the book was written, or maybe she wasn't allowed to talk about it, but either way, there's nothing about it here. So you shouldn't go into it expecting to learn more if you saw Shane's video, but I think it’s still worth reading.