Book Review – Love is for Losers by Wibke Brueggemann

In this wry and hilarious queer romantic comedy, fifteen-year-old Phoebe realizes that falling in love is maybe not just for losers.

Did you know you can marry yourself? How strange / brilliant is that?

Fifteen-year-old Phoebe thinks falling in love is vile and degrading, and vows never to do it. Then, due to circumstances not entirely in her control, she finds herself volunteering at a local thrift shop. There she meets Emma… who might unwittingly upend her whole theory on life.

This is a laugh-out-loud exploration of sexuality, family, female friendship, grief, and community. With the heart and hilarity of Netflix’s critically-acclaimed Sex Education, Wibke Brueggemann’s sex positive debut is required reading for Generation Z teens. Think of this as Bridget Jones’ Diary, if it were written by Bridget’s daughter.

My rating:

The diary style format of this book, combined with Phoebe’s sarcastic humour, worked well for me, and I found myself enjoying it more than I thought I would.

I really liked Kate (and the cats!) and her presence in Phoebe’s life, that was lovely. Much like Phoebe though, I did sort of want to yell at her mum.

Phoebe isn’t always a likeable main character – the way she keeps people at a distance translated through the pages for me. But that said, I loved her friendship with Alex (from sort of bumbling, awkward and a little rude to proper friends) and the way she really was just unsure of everything.

I found her crush on Emma sort of obvious, but still sort of adorable. Plus the ending made me having feelings (ugh!!) because it was all cute.

I also loved all the little side plots around the charity shop – especially find of the week, that sounded so fun 🙂

Buy Love is for Losers from Amazon UK.