Disclaimer: Although I will be describing certain moments of the book, they are introduced early on in the book. This review will be as spoiler free as possible! 

“I’ve been waiting for you to come home for eleven years. I’ll go anywhere you go.” 

Love & Other Words by Christina Lauren is a romantic novel, following the story of Macy as a young girl and meeting the boy next door to her vacation home, Elliot , and the concurrent story line of Macy encountering Elliot now 10 years later since a cryptic falling out one New Years Eve. This novel is a fantastic read if you are someone who enjoys angsty romance, a best friends to lovers, or exes to lovers trope. 

Even if you may not be entirely a fan of those tropes, one unique part of this book that makes it distinct from other cliche romance stories is the theme and representation of grief as a young child. Early in the book it is introduced that Macy had lost her mother at age 11, which is why her father ends up purchasing a vacation home that leads her to meeting Elliot. Macy’s internal dialogue and also her interactions with Elliot, her friends from home, Elliot’s family, and her own family is an accurate representation of the struggle of losing a parent as a child, and the conflict of relating to others while dealing with the side effects of such grief.

“When I lost her, it felt like I was drowning in all the love I still had that could never be given. It filled me up, choked me like a rag doused in kerosene, spilled out in tears and screams and in heavy, pulsing silence. And somehow, as much as I hurt, I knew it was even worse for Dad.” 

 As someone who has lost a parent at 17, this specific part of Macy’s character made her very relatable, and she became more dimensional than a teenage girl obsessing over a boy, because her grief had shaped her where she couldn’t relate to her friends talking about boys, she was apathetic because she had lost her mother. It is very comforting for someone like me to see an accurate representation of how grief affects you, especially at a young age, in a way that is not belittling. Elliot was a great example of a good friend and support system to Macy where she didn’t feel pressured about her grief, but Elliot was not perfect and showed that human struggle to not push Macey about her mom and to comfort her. 

The love story itself is a very accurate depiction of what it feels like to experience first love, the naive feeling as a child to fall in love with someone.  With the ten years separation between Elliot and Macy, it shows the growth as people go farther in life and become different after heartbreaks and different romantic experiences. It also showed that very well known saying, “you never fully get over your first love” as the characters struggle with regret and reminiscing of what had been and what could have been. It had a beautiful structure of showing young love, having it fall apart, and after all that time yearning for that person. 

“I never got to fall out of love. I just had to move on.” 

However, there were some of the elements of the book that made it less enjoyable. In the novel, there are a couple explicit scenes, and prior to this there are discussions of both internal and external dialogue regarding explicit content. Lauren’s intentions were very clear, to show a blossoming relationship between growing teenagers, where it’s very common going through puberty to discuss these things and start to become curious about it. However, it was the writing of these scenes that made it very awkward and uncomfortable. The two explicit scenes were weaker than the other writing in the book. It felt out of place, and diminished the meaning of the novel. I felt if these scenes had only been implied rather than detailed, the book would have been more enjoyable. Lauren’s intent seemed to be to show the growth of two children to young adults, but the way it was structured took away from the rest of the story

Regarding the explicit content, there was another aspect that I felt was a flaw in the book. Without giving too much context that would spoil the novel, there is a sexual assault scene. However, this scene was barely discussed within the book. This led to many people on platforms such as GoodReads, ending up not recognizing this scene as assault. This scene is an extremely important moment in the plot, yet it was barely developed. Along with this, it was a missed opportunity to properly discuss consent and the topic of sexual assault, especially with men being assaulted as it is very much a taboo concept in media. 

Despite these two parts, I was able to thoroughly enjoy the book. If you are able to look past this and reflect on these parts of the book, the rest of the story is beautifully written and is a great story that shows young love. Though there could be improvement, this is still a story I adore because of the way it is structured between past and present, and how it shows falling in love with your childhood best friend, and falling in love all over again.