If you enjoy reading nonfiction, memoir-type books, then you have likely heard of or read Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton. This is a 350-page, typical lost-in-your-twenties story where Alderton talks about her experiences with life and, of course, love, during her twenties. Many people, according to the reviews across platforms such as Goodreads, TikTok, and Instagram, find this to be a very relatable story regarding what your 20s are like with beautiful prose. I honestly found myself relating to some of the side characters more than I did to our author.
This story is very repetitive, as we often see many of her experiences of being in a relationship, having one-night stands, and realizing that she is not ready for commitment. At the end of the book, it all comes down to her not finding a long-term romantic relationship but finding comfort in the fact that she has her long-term friendships, despite all of them being in committed, romantic relationships. She shares these experiences and revelations throughout the book with anecdotes that all start to feel very similar by the end.
I don’t usually like to rate and review memoirs, as I want to focus less on the actual content of the book and more on the writing and my thoughts. I feel more comfortable doing that, as this is someone’s personal life and experiences that they have had; it would be wrong to judge that aspect of it.
Some aspects of this were extremely relatable, or even if not relatable, I was able to understand. I laughed, I came close to crying, and I found comfort in some of her words. However, as someone who has been in a long-term, committed relationship for many years, I was not able to truly relate to much of what the author was saying as she talked about feeling left behind in her twenties and not finding a partner. I found myself relating to her best friend, Farly, much more.
The writing in itself was also if I must say, a bit boring at times. At first, I enjoyed it, it felt like an old friend sitting down and telling her life story and funny anecdotes that she has had. Yet, by the time I was 300 pages in, it all felt a bit repetitive. The stories were similar, the lessons learned were similar, and the experiences she had throughout her twenties were honestly quite similar. I was getting bored by the end and was wondering what the point of yet another anecdote was and if it contributed to the story.
All that to say, I think I would still recommend this book, especially if you are a twenty-something-year-old female who loves her friendships and girlhood. Many moments of this story made me want to gather up all my friends and give them a giant hug.