Losing It is cringingly insightful about sex and dating and all the ways we tie ourselves into knots over both ... Rathbone slyly constructs a female protagonist who is a product of a sex-crazed culture but not a victim of it ... The genius of Losing It is that Rathbone resists turning her novel into a conventional romance. Julia wants sex. She never mentions love.
Rathbone writes with pinpointed accuracy the feelings of discontent and despair that can arise from feeling lost or stuck in life ... Rathbone imbues Julia with such warmth and humor, and writes her with such affection, you can’t help but root for the misguided character even when you want to shake her ... Losing It is a terrific and funny meditation on the deep pockets of discontent in life, growing up, and seizing the right opportunities for connection when you can.
There are many instances in Losing It which invite deeper reflection than they actually elicit...When we’re so desperately rooting for Julia to show integrity, to respect herself, and to place more of her energy into developing herself as a fully alive, well-rounded individual, we feel let down by such evasion of reflection ... Rathbone deftly portrays the complexities of Julia’s adulthood — wry intellect jostling with pervasive insecurity, college-educated with a high-schooler’s expectations of love and sex ... Losing It is aided immensely by Rathbone’s sparkling prose: she writes with a painter’s eye and a diarist’s heart.
Losing It deftly charts the shifting temperatures of awkward social situations, and the reader gets to wince along with its characters. If the story’s premise at times feels a little narrow, it’s only because Julia herself is such a rich heroine whom I would happily read about, no matter the plot ... Rathbone’s accuracy is what makes her so funny; it’s her grace as a writer that elevates this book from a series of comedic one-liners to art.
Losing It approaches this story with an honesty and nuance that can often be lacking in depictions of female sexuality ... Rathbone has a crisply compelling prose style and an honesty about female sexuality, but Losing It nonetheless doesn’t read as a raw, unfettered take on a 20-something coming of age. The plot often relies on simple contrivances and awkward scenarios that would seem equally at home in a sitcom script ... When it comes to a beach read, Losing It is excellent, but it won’t throw too many curveballs.
It’s a testament to Rathbone’s writing that we still find Julia sympathetic even as it becomes clearer that Julia’s own poor decision-making is part of the issue. She is an anti-hero of her own story, solely because of a fluke of sexual chemistry and opportunity ... This is what makes Losing It subversive. We understand Julia’s hesitation, which is almost radical in this world of swipe-happy 20-somethings. But even though her characters may be ashamed of their virginity, Rathbone isn’t ashamed on their behalf, and so gives voice to a silent subgroup.
Julia’s single-minded focus on sex would feel off-putting, and the book shallow, if Rathbone weren’t so clear-eyed about where that focus comes from: namely, a sense of emptiness and stuntedness ... [Rathbone] knows how to find the comedy in Julia’s neurotic obsessive fantasies, and the tragedy in her series of unendingly terrible adventures in online dating ... a story that’s well worth reading.
