Book Review: Everything I Know About Love—By: Dolly Alderton

Brief Synopsis

This memoir follows the life of a young Dolly Alderton as she finds her footing in London in the decade after university. Dolly Alderton imparts her wisdom on finding romantic love, maintaining adult relationships, and navigating the mornings after the nights you want to forget.

Everything I Know About Love, by Dolly Alderton, book cover from Indigo.ca

Personal review

I think this is the perfect book for girls in their twenties to read. Regardless of where you are in life, if you are in a successful relationship and have a good job, or if everything is falling apart and you feel like nothing is going to get back on track, this is the book for you. Nobody is perfect, and no one lives the life they pictured for themselves, but that's okay. Alderton's incredibly honest recount of her best and worst moments is extremely relatable and reminds young women that it is okay to not be perfect and it's okay to be embarrassed sometimes.

I think the reason Alderton's book has become such a fast bestseller is that it is so extremely relatable and refreshing. Especially post-COVID, it's incredibly hard not to get caught up in seeing our peers through social media, where everything looks perfect, the lighting is impeccable, and their skin looks flawless, contrasting their gorgeous 'natural' hair. It's uncommon for someone to say, "Here are all the details from the most embarrassing night of my life." It's uncommon for people to post authentic, unedited, and unfiltered pictures to their social media channels. So being able to read 358 pages of genuine thoughts, lessons, and experiences from someone who is just trying to be their best self and live their life to the fullest is incredibly refreshing.

It's hard to be in your early 20s post-university. It's not easy figuring out the first few steps of your adult life and who's going to stick around you through them and who's going to be the random side character who is never to be seen after season 1. It's also hard to be a girl, career complaints aside—it's hard to have a one-night stand as a female and be celebrated in the same way a man is when he picks up a "hot girl" and takes her home. Alderton's account of her 20s is refreshing, raw, and rambunctious, to say the least; however, at the end of the day, Everything I Know About Love is the perfect coming-of-age/lifestyle novel for all females in their 20s-30s and a perfect reminder that we don't know everything about love, parties, dates, friends, jobs, and life, but that's OK, and somehow everything will work out in the end.

Favourite quote

Nearly everything I have learned about love, I've learned in my long-term friendships with women.

Pg. 315.

My rating: 9/10