The L.O.V.E. Club / Lio Min / Book Review

THE L.O.V.E. CLUB

"Has anyone in history ever truly understood a teenage girl in crisis?"

Three years ago, Elle disappeared from Calendula, shattered the friend group she left behind. Without the "E" to keep them together, the L.O.V.E. Club broke apart. Liberty and Vera moved. O was left behind, crushed by the weight of her grief, her abandonment, her... confusion? Because she doesn't really remember the details of what happened. Because she can't.

But with senior year on the horizon, Liberty and Vera are back. And something wants these girls together again. Pulled back to the hangout where they used to stay up late playing video games, these girls meet to find a game waiting for them, already loaded on the console. An impossible game. A game created by Elle. A game that doesn't give them a chance to decide before dragging them in to play.

THOUGHTS

I'm really conflicted as I write this review because, on a line level, this book contains some really excellent writing. It's lyrical. It's beautiful. And the ideas being explored are really, really good ideas. But even with all that... I don't know that it works. I don't think it came together. All the pieces are here, but the execution didn't work for me.

PROS

Silent Cycles	This book comes with a laundry list of content warnings, and abuse is just one of them. But the way Lio Min depicts the cycle of abuse works so well (as hard as it is to read). In a more traditional community like Calendula, silence reigns supreme. Everybody's supposed to keep family business behind closed doors, even when everybody else already knows what's happening behind closed doors. And what happens to the mother will happen to the daughter and will be impressed upon her daughter after her. It's a hard cycle, and it's a very real one. This book takes a very serious look at something so many forms of media overlook. And the breaking of that kind of silence is really powerful.
Lyrical Passages	I've said it above, and I'll say it again: Lio Min can write. This book contains some incredibly lyrical passages, the kind that stick in your teeth and resonate in your ribs. While on a plot level, this book can sometimes be difficult to comprehend, some of the snippets you could pull from these pages feel like poetry, in the absolute best way.
Backstory Boons	This is a book of friendship interrupted, of tragedy that dragged a group apart. And the one execution I found really well done in this book was the unveiling of Vera and Liberty's time away from Calendula. These backstories are rough to read (though important), and they encompass all kinds of natural human experiences, like drifting away from lifelong friends because of distance, because of trauma, because of family secrets you can't share (but you can't not share). There's a lot to unpack in these stories, and I appreciate that.

CONS

I've said this book comes with content warnings galore, and it really does. This isn't a read for the faint of heart. It's quite a difficult book to get through. Anyone who might not want to dig into the ragged edges and gory details of self-harm, disordered eating, sexual assault and more should steer clear. Was it worth the read? I think so... but I wouldn't give it a blanket recommendation!	Rough Content
With all the heavy content in this book, it's necessary to take a break, and unfortunately, this book doesn't provide much of an opportunity for that. The sections are really long. They're hard to dig through, and there's no opportunity to refresh and regroup. Even chapters that contain breaks only end up ballooning bigger than the others, so the sections within sections are just as long, just as tiring.	The Long Haul
You know what's just the worst experience while reading? Being constantly confused. And boy, was I constantly confused in this one. I really liked the concept of this game encompassing their reunion, but the actual gameplay... doesn't make sense. At least not to me. And the way they end up there, the way they accept it and just kind of move on like it's regular, normal, or at least something they can deal with is... not it. Everything felt kind of random and confused, and I just don't like that.	Just Plain Confused

Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
5/10

Fans of e. lockhart's We Were Liars will like digging into the fracture past of these kind-of-sort-of friends. Those who liked Eve Silver's Rush will love exploring another not-quite-video-game world with ruthless consequences.

Details Publisher: Flatiron Books Date: August 5, 2025 Series: N/A Add to Goodreads Buy it HERE

Note: I was provided with an ARC by the publisher through Edelweiss+ in exchange for an honest review. All opinions here are my own.