Love is for Losers

Starred review from December 21, 2020
A sarcastic 15-year-old records angst—about her parents, first love and loss, and failure—in six months of achingly universal journal entries. London resident Phoebe Davis has no interest in love; in fact, she finds emotional entanglements of every kind more trouble than they’re worth. When her best friend abandons her for the idiocy of first love and her frontline physician mother announces she’s heading to Syria for six months, once again leaving Phoebe behind with her godmother, Phoebe insists she’s better off on her own. After an incident with an escaped designer cat leaves Phoebe in debt to Kate, she begins working at the cancer charity shop Kate runs, and finds herself pulled into the lives of her coworkers, including Emma, whom Phoebe can’t stop thinking about. Via journal entries told in Phoebe’s no-nonsense tone, debut author Bruegge-
mann details the snarky, socially awkward protagonist’s growth as she experiences the messiness of attraction and love, and comes to appreciate the joy and pain of connection. Phoebe’s frequent internet searches and frank narration style manage to both entertain and inform on a wide variety of topics pertaining to sexuality and identity, whether she’s looking into the female orgasm or exploring the “strange/brilliant” idea of marrying oneself. Ages 14–up.