Book Review | Let's Talk About Love

Image from Bookish

Books like this manage to make me both happy and sad at the same time. Happy, because of the representation that provides both input and perspective for those that both identify and don't identify with those represented. Sad, because it brings to light just how difficult the argument for representation is for those who are the standard, cookie cutter, every day average Joe.

I'm not generally open about my own sexuality (much like Alice in Claire Kann's Let's Talk About Love) but let's just say that this book did a very good job of representing asexuality. I suppose that's more or less an admission, but there it is.

I generally don't do YA (though I'm trying) and I certainly don't do contemporary romance. It's just not my bag. However, a book about a woman who is asexual piqued my interest something fierce because it faces a special kind of challenge for the writer, and that'd describing just exactly what asexuality (ace for short) is.

Whether Claire Kann herself is asexual, I cannot say. Part of the acknowledgments thanked sensitivity readers for ensuring that this story was presented accurately and respectfully, but I don't know if that was because Kann needed the input or just wanted to consider different viewpoints on the matter. Regardless, it worked well. Let's Talk About Love delivered a buffet of enigmatic and endearing characters, all of whom have very relatable problems even if their lives aren't wholly relatable.

Our main character for this novel is Alice, who has just been dumped — harshly — by her live in college girlfriend. Her reason for ending things? Alice doesn't want to have sex. That's not to say that they're not having sex, Alice just isn't into it. This is an understandable argument to have and probably an important conversation that should have taken place prior to their officiating their relationship status, but that doesn't change how unsympathetic and, frankly, racist, Alice's now ex-girlfriend is on the matter. This naturally leaves Alice homeless and moving in with her best friends who are engaged and planning a wedding. This leaves Alice as the odd woman out until she meets Takumi, and her world is turned upside down.

For starters, meeting Takumi does some weird things to Alice, but overall she realizes that despite her growing attraction to him, its ultimately not a sexual attraction. She spends much of her time navigating this and coming to terms with it with the help of friends. But as Alice still grows closer to Takumi, rifts start to open between her and her friends.

While this is a natural state in many new relationships I feel, this was probably the least satisfying aspect of the novel. Alice and her friends end up resolving things rather quickly towards the end and it doesn't feel like they've learned much about themselves over the course of these events. Who was wrong? Who was right? It's settled that both parties were wrong in how things were handled, but I didn't get a good sense of just exactly why. I would have appreciated getting to know these friends a little better so I could get a better understanding of what type of people they really are. You know pretty early on that Alice is close to them, but you're equal parts shown and told as opposed to just being shown. Then there's the lingering issue of them being mad at Alice for leaving a party they ditched her at to have sex, during which time she was assaulted by a stranger. This seemed unfair and totally unresolved, and I think might have put a lot of things in perspective if Alice had just mentioned this.

Still, if the book had had no real external conflict it would have been a little too flowery and happy, so I guess something had to happen.

Overall this was a very fun and light read. At 277 pages it's not demanding a great deal of your time, and the prose is very straightforward. I could have done without all of the parentheticals though. I often wished we were just inside of Alice's head instead of getting all of her internal thoughts as though they were just a narrative aside.

All that being said, these characters were fun and charming. If Alice were a real person I genuinely feel that she and I would be friends, and that made for a very special reading experience. I cared about her. I cared about her friends. I cared about Takumi. I almost want a sequel to this, though I think I'd like for Kann to practice writing conflict a little more before that were to happen.

Still, if you're looking for a fun summer read, look no further. Let's Talk About Love provides everything you could ever want in this category, and then some.