Block Delete Move On

Nov 17

Block, Delete, Move On by La La La Let Me Explain

Reviewed by Linda
📕📕📕📕

A good friend introduced me to @lalalaletmeexplain IG page sometime ago, and I’ve never looked back. From well-researched women’s health and safeguarding advice to entertaining but considered “fuckboy” replies, I have found Lalalaletmeexplain, anonymous dating expert, to be the voice of reason and the font of knowledge I never knew I needed especially in the age of problematic social media.

As a millennial growing up with books like Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, Act Like A Lady, Think Like A Man and so on, the narrative (vastly dictated by men) is based on a single view about how women should behave to attract the male gaze. The aforementioned books do more harm than anything else and in my opinion, don’t serve women much purpose.

BDMO doesn’t try to be one of these traditional turned modern “dating” books though (I wouldn’t have picked it up otherwise tbh) nor does the book go to the other extreme of men hating. Instead, the author carefully gets to the crux of toxic traits and red flag behaviour which we all need to be aware of, regardless of your relationship status or circumstances. The author writes from a sincere place of experience, utmost professionalism and inclusion which is rare and creates an unputdownable and informative read. BDMO is a unique book which sits in a genre of its own.

The easy to digest format of the book also deserves a commendation! I absolutely LOVED the colourful visuals and illustrations peppered throughout the text which make heavy topics less daunting and easy on the eye.

feminist non-fictionnon-fictionlalalaletmeexplainblock delete move onrelationship expertBDMO

Linda Malek

I've always had the urge to set up a forum and voice my thoughts after each read, but never had the confidence to do so alone. 18 months ago, I got my fellow book-loving friends involved and formed The Candid Book Club! Aside from having an exponentially growing to-read pile and deteriorating shortsightedness, we've been lucky to have been invited to publisher events and have attended several talks with our favourite authors (Thank you and long may they continue!) To take a break from the pressures of PhD Chemistry, Jess and I exchanged books all the time and in my youth, I was that kid with the first editions of Harry Potter having already read Gulliver’s travels and some Charles Dickens. At work, my desk is a library and luckily for me I sit next to another bookworm Jack who entertains all the photo-taking. I'm suffering from a chronic case of wanderlust (age-related crisis) so books which are set as far away from home as possible tend to float my boat: Middle East, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Asia...you name it. But if it's got anything to do with Egypt then I'm all over it. So you get the drift...I read all the time, everywhere (on the tube mostly), everyday, a book a week, and very quickly I'm onto the next! And then sometimes there is a book that stops me in my tracks, makes me want to swallow the pages whole, and have it next to me at all times, with some sentences staying with me forever: Shantaram by David Gregory Roberts, anything by Khaled Hosseini, The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo (absolute gem of a woman), A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, The Good Immigrant edited by Nikesh Shuklaand and anything by Naguib Mahfouz.

Block Delete Move On

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