Review: Let’s Talk About Love by Claire Kann || Dear Ms. Kann, Thank You

Let’s Talk About Love

Claire Kann

Alice had her whole summer planned. Non-stop all-you-can-eat buffets while marathoning her favorite TV shows (best friends totally included) with the smallest dash of adulting–working at the library to pay her share of the rent. The only thing missing from her perfect plan? Her girlfriend (who ended things when Alice confessed she’s asexual). Alice is done with dating–no thank you, do not pass go, stick a fork in her, done.
But then Alice meets Takumi and she can’t stop thinking about him or the rom com-grade romance feels she did not ask for (uncertainty, butterflies, and swoons, oh my!).
When her blissful summer takes an unexpected turn, and Takumi becomes her knight with a shiny library employee badge (close enough), Alice has to decide if she’s willing to risk their friendship for a love that might not be reciprocated—or understood.

Publisher: Swoon Reads

Published: January 23rd 2018

Aphobia, Racist Microaggressions

“If knowing you’re asexual makes someone see you differently, then they don’t deserve to be in your life.”

Dammit, I swear I don’t hand out 5 stars all willy nilly. But, it’d feel wrong if I gave this any less.

Alice, a biromantic asexual has just been dumped by her girlfriend because she thinks Alice doesn’t love her as much if she doesn’t want to have sex. ON top of that, she’s dealing with her parent dictating her major, her and her bestfriend are going through a rough patch and there’s a cute guy at work and has to decide if telling him she’s asexual is going to change anything.

“The bottom line was her body had never shown so much as a flicker of sexual interest in anyone. But that didn’t mean she liked being alone. That didn’t mean she wasn’t lonely. That didn’t mean she didn’t want romance and didn’t want to fall in love. It didn’t mean she couldn’t love someone just as fiercely as they loved her.”

Seeing asexuality being represented so wonderfully just makes my heart hurt ~~from happiness of course~~. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book where I can see myself so fully in a book in this way. An ace black girl who’s happy? I swear all of my notes I wrote during my reading were RELATABLE ~~yes, just like that, in all caps and everything~~.

I also have an older brother and sister who are about a decade older than me. I have also pretended to have a crush on a guy so I wasn’t the odd one out. This book made me cry, but I swear it was from happiness.

“Why did she have to spend the rest of her life coming out over and over and over…? And once she did, would people always expect her to talk about it? It would always be a huge deal, she would always be subjected to questions, and she would always have to defend herself. Would it ever stop feeling like A Thing, a barrier, between her and everyone else?”

By chapter one, I was already pissed. Alice’s ex states Alice can’t love as much as she does because she won’t have sex. Which is preposterous. Sex is not the last battle boss to showing you love someone. Unbelievable.

And though some sensitive topics are being discussed, but this isn’t a woe is me kind of book. It funny and lighthearted and shows I’m just so damn happy that I can read a book about someone like me who’s allowed to be happy.

“Through it all, being demeaned and feeling disheartened and dispirited, Alice was expected to be nice. To overlook the microaggressions when they continuously rained down on her and find solidarity wherever she could. She was expected to endure in silence.”

I love how Alice wasn’t made to be this sad person because of her sexuality. She embraced it, she was happy. But, she was also flawed. I know many people comment on how immature she comes off, but… I wouldn’t call it that. Goofy? Yes. Sweet? Of course. But immature? I didn’t get that vibe from her. She’s allowed to make mistakes, to not know what she wants from life, to take things easy.

“Black people have to be perfect, inhumanely good at everything, and even then we can fail, because that’s the way the system is set up. It is rigged against us.”

Yet, even then, she also dealt with microaggressions and men looking at her as nothing but a sex icon and being black in general. How that affected her as a person and how she had to act and she may have not done everything right, but she did what felt right in the moment and that’s okay.

Look I will champion this girl till the end of time come at me.

But all of these characters were flawed and talked it out, got through it. All of the relationships were real. Alice’s friendship with Feenie and Ryan, her relationship with Takumi ~~did I mention there’s a center interracial relationship?~~ was never just cupcakes and rainbows, but they were amazing nonetheless.

“Wherever I am, you are always welcome.”

And dammit I wasn’t expecting to smile so much. Alice and Takumi were adorable together, I especially loved them in the beginning. And though he’s ignorant on what asexuality is, he’s never disrespectful and accepts her. And Alice’s thought process and feeling when these unexpected emotions come out of the blue, watching her question herself and come to terms that there’s not one way to be asexual…

Look, I’m trying not to gush too much, but I JUST LOVE THIS BOOK, OKAY?

There’s so much I want to say, but I really want you guys to read it yourselves. You want something cute and sweet and short? Here you go. You want some good rep? I got you. Go read it ❤