Everything I Know About Love (Review)

“When you’re looking for love and it seems like you might not ever find it, remember you probably have access to an abundance of it already, just not the romantic kind. This kind of love might not kiss you in the rain or propose marriage. But it will listen to you, inspire and restore you. It will hold you when you cry, celebrate when you’re happy, and sing All Saints with you when you’re drunk. You have so much to gain and learn from this kind of love. You can carry it with you forever. Keep it as close to you as you can.”

― Dolly Alderton, Everything I Know About Love: A Memoir

The vibe

I feel confident that Dolly would wear and love this very y2k fit.

Book / Jacket / Shoes / BFF necklace / Dress / Bangles / Purse / Phone case / Earrings

The review

I keep trying and failing to summarize this memoir for a review purpose, and it’s just so hard because it sounds so simple. Everything I Know About Love is about new adulthood — the good, the bad, and the ugly (aka emptying out your bank account in the wee early hours of the morning because you’re completely pissed and are paying a cabbie to drive you across London for another party).

Dolly Alderton has the voice of a generation (mine, actually) and I found her writing completely captivating and unbearably relatable. Dolly made me laugh out loud constantly. She made me feel like I wasn’t alone in having those 20-something thoughts — she made me feel so much gratitude for my dear friends who’ve seen me at my best, as well as my worst.

Everything I Know About Love is a memoir, but it’s structured like essays — and the occasional listicle and recipe. It more or less follows the entirety of Dolly’s 20s, but starts a bit earlier to give you a baseline of her upbringing and her relationship with her one and only soulmate, her best friend Farly.

The truth is, I struggled to write this review — and procrastinated on it so much — because I simply cannot put words together to do it justice. Dolly would do such a better job than me at that, she’s a brilliant writer.

Read this book. And/or, listen to it on audio — Dolly narrates it herself. I think it’s a gorgeous, relatable book for any and every millennial woman.