Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy.

This was a quick fun read. Illustration was great along with the story.

SO MUCH FOR LOVE is excellent. Sophie Lambda's drawings and insight convey giddy early love, sorrow, fear, and other moments on the emotional rollercoaster of an emotionally abusive relationship. Somehow, she does it all with dry, pointed humor, aided by not only her autobiographical POV and that of her confidant Chocolat, an opinionated, booze-swilling teddy bear, always ready with an observant remark on the incidents in Sophie's life. Sophie, a talented illustrator from rural France, is at what should be a good place in her life; she has great friends and is making promising work connections. Then she meets a handsome, charming actor at an industry party, a man whose face appears on TV and posters. He seems to be equally charmed by her lack of pretension and glamour...but does he really see her? More worryingly, how much deception and manipulation will he use to prevent her from really seeing him?

As a Librarian, I would recommend this powerful work to book clubs, readers in the ages 17-35 demographic, but also survivors of past domestic violence who may still be processing that damaging period of their lives. As an American reader, I found the term 'perverse narcissism' unfamiliar, but is accurate. The author's explanatory illustrations of the term are clear and user-friendly. Realistic, relatable, and should be required reading -- maybe even for some younger readers, depending upon the context.

This book does a great job of showing rather than simply telling about toxic, controlling relationships. The author's perspective feels genuine and connects with the reader. She expresses mild to severe dysfunctions in relationships in a truly helpful way for new adult readers.

That said, the end does feel like it drags on for a bit longer than necessary. There's introspection and then there is over-analysis --and this borders on over-analysis. I won't say that it digs into clinical aspects about the toxicity of her partner, but it does feel considerably technical and over-explained at times. There feels like a split in the book: first half is showing the problems start to appear and explode in interactions; and the second part is an analysis with a lot of explanations about every little thing. It could have been edited a little more handily in the back and still given the same solid information to the reader.

This was a tough read, but a worthwhile one. Part memoir and part self-help, So Much for Love details the author's experience with an immensely toxic and emotionally/mentally abusive relationship before moving on to things she has learned in therapy and throughout her healing process, resources, and tips for readers who may suspect they, too, are in an unhealthy relationship.

While she delivers the story with a lot of brevity and candidness (and really cute art), the relationship-based bits of So Much for Love are hard to read at times. As a fellow abuse survivor, there were moments that hit way too close to home, but it was cathartic, knowing from the get-go that the author wrote this book from a perspective of someone who had escaped that terrible situation and is healing.

So many domestic abuse depictions in stories feature the beginning and the middle, but not the end - or if they do feature the end, it goes into very little detail thereafter. We see the trauma, but not its long-lasting effects or the healing process afterwards. That's not the case here: the abuse depictions only last (for the most part) until somewhere around the halfway mark, and the rest is all healing, and I loved that a lot. It was so heartwarming to read the things Sophie Lambda has learned in her time since leaving her ex, and I was so proud of her (as well as some other important figures in her story) by the end of it that I just wanted to give her a big hug. ♥

This is a lovely book for any person who has lived and loved with one of those toxic people in our lives. It takes an honest look at how quickly you can fall into their personalities, how you overlook their flaws, and just become focused on them. Once the fog clears, the author shared how she was able to escape that super toxic space in her life and where she is now. Told in a simple to understand format, the drawings and text relay a much deeper understanding of the human psyche than just what you think on the surface. Bravo!

This memoir/graphic novel is, for better or for worse, an incredibly accurate and well laid out depiction of what a toxic relationship can look Like. The author’s willingness to be so vulnerable on the page is a great help to anyone who might feel alone or scared or stuck in a situation they never saw coming. Beautifully depicted, without hiding any of the ugliness, this book should be required reading because red flags are often only red in hindsight unless you know what you’re looking for,

I enjoyed this book! So Much for Love by Sophie Lambda might be one of the best characterizations of narcissist abuse I've found in a long, long time. One part autobiography, one part instruction manual, this graphic novel excellently points out the ups and downs of being with a narcissist. It's a heartbreaking story that feels universal.

The second half, which becomes less autobiography and more psychology analysis were a bit dense for my personal taste. The life and breath of this book were in the author's personal stories - incredibly compelling things to read. A great book worth reading.

Thank you Netgalley for an arc of this book.

WOW. This book, although tough to read in some points because experiencing the manipulative abuse of the protag is extremely real, is a fantastic resource for everyone who ever needed to know what a manipulative-abusive partner looks like. The book includes a ton of written-in resources on how to identify and learn from a manipulator, and how to heal. I don't say this often, but this is a book EVERYONE needs to read.