A review by jayvall
The Breakup Doctor by Phoebe Fox

THE BREAKUP DOCTOR tells the story of Brook Ogden, licensed mental health
counselor, who slowly starts to lose it as she first loses her job and then
her boyfriend. As she finds a new gig writing a newspaper column for the
unlucky-in-love set, her own love life begins to unravel until she finds
herself breaking into her boyfriend's apartment to try and figure out why
he's no longer interested in being with her.

THE BREAKUP DOCTOR was an interesting book because I think it's supposed to
be funny to see the dichotomy of Brook's success as a relationship expert
for the newspaper while her personal life is falling apart, but it struck me
as sad more than funny. She has issues that she hadn't dealt with before
getting into the relationship that ultimately went south, and we get to see
her work through them and realize that pushing down her feelings is not the
same as dealing with them. My only complaint is that the book felt sort of
one-note to me. There was a subplot about Brook's mom leaving to be in a
play, but it was really very secondary to the main plot, which meant that by
the end of the book I was tired of being in Brook's head with her problems.

In general THE BREAKUP DOCTOR was well-written and kept me engaged. I would
like to see what Phoebe Fox's next book will be about.