Casale did an incredible job of putting words to emotions and thoughts I’ve never known how to express. While the characters are relatable, I longed for more profound development and a stronger connection to their journeys. Joy starts spending a lot of time with Theo and ends up falling for him, only for him to show up a few weeks later with the most stunning woman Joy has ever seen and introduces her as his girlfriend. But then an anonymous letter lands on her desk accusing her esteemed and supportive boss of sexual misconduct, and Annie is forced to decide who and what she’s willing to stand up for. She was not very well developed and seemed to serve only as a foil to show us how self-obsessed Joy was and how the beauty she wished she had was not all it cracked up to be.

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Michaelides seems also to be dipping into the world of Edgar Allan Poe, offering an unreliable narrator who feels more like a literary exercise. Casale is a master observer, and she renders the frustrations and joys of everyday life in piercingly clear prose. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.

When her mother had told him in private that her daughter had very painful, heavy periods, he suggested it, and without question they put her on a small dose of hormones. There’s no flattering way for me to sit with it so I think about ways to not sit, and I think about sucking it in whenever it is that I am sitting. How to Fall Out of Love Madly embodies womanhood and all that it entails; the pining, the crushing emotion of unrequited love, the sexual harassment and assaults, the unrelenting fixation on weight and body image, the sisterhood of friendship.

The insights are all very surface level and don’t capture anywhere near the breadth of the female experience. This coming from a character who spent the entirety of the book in an unhappy relationship (that she leaves but then glorifies but then blames herself for? this book made me face so much internalized misogyny and it reminded me so much of the show “girls” and how that show made me feel about such realistic portrayals of women.

Perceptive, mordantly funny, and full of heart, How to Fall Out of Love Madly examines women's many relationships-with one another, their mothers, their work, men, and themselves-to reveal their underlying power and complexity. Soon, however, Theo brings in Celine, the gorgeous girlfriend he's neglected to mention, and jealous Joy fails to recognize Celine's own deep pain. I know it’s only January and I know this is only my 6th book of the year and I know I will read many, many more in the coming months, but I also know that no matter how many I read, this one will be among my favorites!Annie is baffled by Joy’s senseless devotion to Theo, but she’s consumed by her own obsessions: she can’t stop parsing her commitment-phobic boyfriend’s texts in an exhausting mission to maintain his approval.

It put me through all of the emotions from happy to sad, depression to longing, and especially anger. Perceptive, mordantly funny, and full of heart, How to Fall Out of Love Madly tells the story of three women who believe in equality yet inexplicably tolerate terrible behavior from men, equating being desired with worth. How to Fall Out of Love Madly is an honest and compelling look at female friendship, romantic relationships, and infatuation. It made Joy feel like Annie was just throwing everything away, or more accurately clearing it away like you would a dirty glass or a fogged windowpane. With all the apartment bashing Annie had done, it was nice to indulge in the idea that it would be them against the world as they chose the dish soap scent and reorganized the refrigerator magnets.I would have liked more about friendship, more about finding yourself, it seems like we have just scratched the surface here and there was a lot more we could have dived into. Struggling to make ends meet, they decide to rent their extra bedroom to Theo, who charms Joy with his salt-and-pepper hair and adoration of their one-eyed cat. Three young women come to terms with the roles of the men in their lives and the sad fact that they put them there. Joy resolves to do whatever it takes to hold on to him, falling ever deeper into an emotional hellscape of her own making.