I think this is an interesting book in its exploration of different forms of love and, in particular, in its reflections on love from an asexual point of view. As an aroace myself, that part was the most intriguing to me. Unfortunately, I found the writing dense and overly floral. I do think there is an audience for this book. People who are drawn to introspection and rumination will likely enjoy this. It just wasn't for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher Catapult, Counterpoint Press, and Soft Skull Press for a free digital ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
DNFed at 15%. I tried to stick this one through, but I realized that I was forcing myself to keep going and not enjoying myself. There isn't much story to this memoir, and it was a lot more philosophizing on love and definitions of different words than I expected it to be. The writing was also a bit inaccessible to me; I'm not sure if it was too poetic or convoluted? It didn't feel like it was saying anything new to me either. The book was incredibly slow moving, and I felt like I was trudging through, so I have decided to put this aside for at least now. The mixed media nature of this book was cool though with its photographs, photography, and art sprinkled throughout.

I was very intrigued by the premise of "elseship": the portrait of a friendship after romantic obsession. I'm always interested in books that take unexpected perspectives on nontraditional relationships.

My favorite parts were scenes where we got to see the two women interacting, what their lives and relationship looked like, and the specifics of how an unrequited declaration of love affects them as friends and roommates. Those scenes are far and few between: a lot of the time, the writing veered into an overwritten kind of abstraction that sounded very spoken-word and made it hard to pin down the particulars of what was happening.

I loved how experimental the book was: it's fragmentary, diaristic and scrapbooky, with drawings, photos, footnotes, and diagrams. It reminded me of tumblr and Rookie Mag. Just wanted a more coherent 'story' to follow about the two women through the pieces.

I feel like a lot of people will love this book—especially those who like personal essay collections like Durga Chew-Bose's "Too Much and Not In The Mood" or "Pop Song" by Larissa Pham. Just not for me!