Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton

Posted On November 13, 2022

Hi Readers! So far I have read 3 books for Nonfiction November. Thought it was about time to review them as well. I am starting with the one I hated. It’s going to be a short review for this book. I listened to this book on Audible. It had been on my TBR for a short time. I wasn’t very keen on picking it up any time soon. The only two reasons I decided to read it was because it was a memoir so it fit in for Nonfiction November, and secondly because it was only for eight hours on Audible. I am definitely going to increase the standard of my screening process. This book was not a book I ever would have wanted to read. The only thing that it has going for itself is that it’s mildly entertaining. There isn’t much advice in it. This is mainly a typical life story of so many people we read about.

~~THOUGHTS~~

“When you are in the middle of a story it isn’t a story at all, but only a confusion; a dark roaring, a blindness, a wreckage of shattered glass and splintered wood; like a house in a whirlwind, or else a boat crushed by the icebergs or swept over the rapids, and all aboard powerless to stop it. It’s only afterwards that it becomes anything like a story at all. When you are telling it, to yourself or to someone else.”

Why write a memoir if you are still in the middle of your story then?

Why make your readers confused in your roaring blind wreckage of a life not fully lived?

For the most part of the book, it seems like the author is plainly looking for the next thing; next party, next drink, next cigarette, next relationship, next boy, next job, next home, next friends. This pattern got boring too quickly and reached a point where it gave me a headache. It negatively influenced me because I am not that person and reading about people drinking and partying is honestly talked and written about enough.

There is no life journey. It’s all just a messy adulting phase that everyone goes through. And because of this, it is not unique. The only ‘supposed growth’ we see from her is in the last very few chapters. It felt forced. It was completely off and did not align with the rest of the book. Everyone has ups and downs. That’s life. But this book was all monotony. A memoir of a 30-something over 350 pages felt a bit dragged out.

I did not like listening to the audiobook either. Even after reading this book, whatever else I read (books or news or emails), I read it in Dolly’s accent! It wasn’t even just the accent. It was the content. It came across as whiny, self-absorbed and tedious. This book being funny might not be accurate unless you love to laugh at others’ misfortunes or naivety. It was entertaining but then if I wanted to be entertained with this kind of content, I would have rewatched Fleabag! It’s the same kind of stuff but Fleabag has Phoebe Waller-Bridge in it, so it is automatically a favourite.

Overall, I gained nothing from this book, aside from multiple migraines. I will not recommend listening to this book at all. If you want to read it, you can give it a try. It may be a different experience that way. But, I have been through it once (barely, somehow) and do not want to go there again. I have rated Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton at 2/5 stars!

Until next time,