Sybil’s review of The Opposite of Love by Julie Buxbaum
Fiction published Jan 08 from The Dial Press Hardcover

Contemporary, mainstream fiction, first person pov, hardcover novel that arrived with a nifty press release telling me of all the nifty reasons, highly contested auction debut novel, The Opposite of Love needs to be read. People it is “…heartbreakingly poignant, funny, and undeniably moving…”

My first thought was “Has Gwen done anything to annoy me lately…” What? You read the summary

When successful twenty-nine-year-old Manhattan attorney Emily Haxby ends her happy relationship just as her boyfriend is on the verge of proposing, she can’t explain to even her closest friends why she did it. Somewhere beneath her sense of fun, her bravado, and her independent exterior, Emily knows that her breakup with Andrew has less to do with him and more to do with…her. “You’re your own worst enemy,” her best friend Jess tells her. “It’s like you get pleasure out of breaking your own heart.”


As the holiday season looms and Emily contemplates whether she made a huge mistake, the rest of her world begins to unravel: she is assigned to a multimillion-dollar lawsuit where she must defend the very values she detests by a boss who can’t keep his hands to himself; her Grandpa Jack, a charming, feisty octogenarian and the person she cares most about in the world, is losing it, while her emotionally distant father has left her to cope with this alone; and underneath it all, fading memories of her deceased mother continue to remind her that love doesn’t last forever.


How this brave, original young heroine finally decides to take control of her life and face the fears that have long haunted her is the great achievement of Julie Buxbaum’s marvelous first novel. Written with the authority, grace, and wisdom of an author far beyond her years, The Opposite of Love heralds the debut of a remarkable talent in contemporary fiction.


read the excerpt

Once I crossed off Gwen, due to a recent-bangs-injury, I opened the book to skim it a little and see who might be interested in it. This was around 9pm and I closed the book around 2am. I then over think it way too much, boring my co worker and later Lawson for about a day. Ok fine, maybe two days.

So what does that mean? The prologue is great and completely at odds with the above. It appeals to the romance reader in me. And I hate to admit it the press release is right, The Opposite of Love is very readable and the author has a great voice. There are so many pieces of the novel you can ‘see’ that you will probably remember having lived.

The thing that didn’t work for me was I couldn’t buy it. Emily is 29 and has been an associate in this law firm for five years. I understand she is at a breaking point, everything had piled on and she was letting her life live her but I wanted to shake her. It dawned on me the reaction was a personal one because if she had been younger “I” could have understood her reactions better.

But hey life doesn’t always make sense and we rarely get to plan our nervous breakdowns. I didn’t like where the book ends. It seemed to need something more, then I reread the prologue and closed the book smiling. So if you like contemporary fiction, don’t mind reflection, breaks, ton of sad and rereading the prologue… check it out.

As for the romance the book would have been so much better if we had seen more Andrew but that could be my dislike of first person showing. Over all interesting characters, believable conflict just too piled on in a short period of time for my taste.

Grade: C