Part of the series: My Favourite Books of 2025
At a Glance
| Author | Madeline Docherty π΄σ §σ ’σ ³σ £σ ΄σ Ώ π³οΈβπ |
|---|---|
| Published | 2025 |
| Publisher | John Murray |
| Genre | Literary Fiction, Contemporary |
| Themes | Endometriosis, friendship, queerness, depression, class, young women |
| GFP Rating | Honourable Mention β Best Books of 2025 |
Scott’s Take
Let me say upfront: the marketing on this book is badly off. The title is wrong, and it’s being sold primarily as an LGBT novel β which isn’t inaccurate, but it undersells what the book actually is. This is a novel about illness, diagnosis, acting out, and that one friend who carries everyone.
Written in the second person, you hit rock bottom, with only Ella there to save you. She’s always there for the late-night hospital visits, to cheer you up when a boy breaks your heart β something with a particular irony, since you’re hopelessly in love with her. She’s there when your gay roommate catches you sleeping with his boyfriend. When you’re hungover, broke, drugged out, homeless. Ella is the stable one. Ella never seems to need anything.
So when you start noticing that friendship fray at the edges, it might already be too late.
Then there are your periods. Ella’s there for the hospital visits when you’re screaming in pain β but maybe a period shouldn’t cause you to black out. Maybe you should be able to function.
The second person is a smart choice. When your protagonist is going to do stupid things, getting the reader to empathise with them is non-negotiable. We need to feel the desperation behind the choices, not just judge them. Second person puts you in those shoes. Hitting on your gay friend’s boyfriend in the kitchen of the house he lives in β that’s not smart. It’s not particularly kind either. But when you’re drunk, high, stressed, and run down with pain, the second person makes sure we think of course she’s acting out rather than she’s just acting out.
Endometriosis is a massive part of this novel, but so too is the basic infrastructure of young life: support networks, the difference financial stability makes. Rock bottom arrives in the middle of the book. Then comes the work of rebuilding. There’s a section where the protagonist is in a relationship with a man she doesn’t really like, but who is wealthy and adores her. The book only hints at it, but you can see clearly the dangers β the quiet commercialisation of her body in the context of a relationship. She’s homeless, she’s an addict, she’s broke β but it could be worse, and the novel keeps reminding you of that without spelling it out.
Ultimately this is a novel about uneven relationships. Every relationship our protagonist has is uneven β but Ella is the one that matters. The massive crush on a straight best friend. The financial gulf between them β one from a stable home, one not. One whose body works. One who provides all the support and makes all the sacrifices, and one who takes it. What makes this friendship so fragile is how much Ella carries without it ever being discussed. And then, late in the novel, there’s a new friend who acts as a counterbalance β and that contrast is quietly devastating.
A wonderful, under-the-radar exploration of illness, depression, and the asymmetry of love. Packed into a slender 180-page misery grenade.
Watch the Full Review
Scott covered Gender Theory as part of his My Favourite Books of 2025 video. Watch it here:
βΆ My Favourite Books of 2025 β Gunpowder, Fiction & Plot
(timestamps in the description)
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If You Liked This, Try These
- Nesting β Roisin O’Donnell β coercive control, isolation, and one woman trying to find the path out
- We Pretty Pieces of Flesh β Colwill Brown β how adolescence shapes women, and what girls carry into adulthood