Isn’t it wild that this book was on my wish list when it first came out and I actually got it as a gift from somebody all the way back then too. Then life happened and it sat in a box for years. I wonder if I had read it as a 24/25 year old how I would have felt about it all and if it would have been a bit more relatable.

But now I’m in my 30s and I don’t think I could ever have truly related to most of the book; Apart from the loneliness, the people pleasing, the always trying to fit in. But I’m pretty sure that’s a normal experience for people in their 20’s living in a big city like London. I think that everyone has an amount of anxiety about those things. But that’s probably where my relatability ends.

There’s certainly no way to relate to the schooling, the upbringing and the social options. The nearest I get is being able to join the reminiscing of MSN messenger and talking to people in the weirdest of ways at the strangest of hours when our parents thought we were asleep.

Part of me is incredibly thankful that most of it feels unrelatable and then other parts of me wails out for missing out on certain experiences; Living with friends in a flat share, hosting ridiculous parties, having a decades old friendship, being invited to parties and weddings. And the book makes it out that everyone in here circle, even Farly who perhaps seems the most reserved and honestly “normal”, has a wild fun side to her that goes about doing all these things.

I think Dolly Alderton’s Everything I Know About Love became a bestseller because it was something that resonated with so many people and that connection made people feel less alone and a little bit less lost in the world. But for me it did the opposite and that uncomfortableness means I really struggle to say I enjoyed this book at all.