“One True Loves” A Review and Playlist

Minor Spoilers Ahead

You know those books that after reading the first page you know no matter how this ends this book is going to break your heart into a million little pieces. After reading the first page of One True Loves, I knew that my heart may not survive this one. As I was reading it, I found myself becoming frustrated, intrigued, and enamored by the story. This review was not easy to write, and the book was not a simple read. Before I get ahead of myself, let’s start with our leading lady. Emma.

Emma wants to leave her hometown and see the world. Who doesn’t think that at least once in their lifetime? Her parents are loving, but sometimes they drive her crazy. She has an older sister (Marie) who is really just her sister and not her friend. She is messy, introverted, and has dreams that are too big for her small town. When I was thinking about what kind of music to put on this album one of my first thoughts was BoyGenius.

Emma would have loved BoyGenius. I know that if they were around in high school she definitely would have listened to them through her wired headphones. Marie would ask what she was listening to and then Emma would say, “you won’t get it.” Marie would shrug, turn up the radio, and would start singing along to the ultra-pop song being sung by Taylor Swift. Probably Shake it off. Emma’s favorite song by them would have been “not strong enough” without a shadow of a doubt. The line “Always an angel,/ never a god/Always an angel, never a god/I don't know why I am the way I am” would play, and a small tear would roll down her face as she would pull up to school. Emma is passionate about getting out of her hometown, but she also is a girl with a crush. It can be debated if she was crushing on Jess or Sam in high school, but I think her heart was Jess’s throughout high school.

I think that while Emma was pining after Jess she would have listened to “So hot you’re hurting my feelings” on repeat. Not the original song, but the cover by Squirrel Flower. She would have sat in her room, and thought “He is so hot. He is hurting my feelings” Then she would cry. She would pull out a magazine that was full of celebrity gossip, and watch an episode of One Tree Hill or Dawson’s Creek. The more I think about it the more I am convinced that Emma is an adventurous Pisces.

While I was thinking about songs that wrap up this book, I caught myself feeling stuck. There are three big relationships in this book: Jess and Emma, Emma and Sam, Emma finding Emma. So, in an effort to encapsulate the whole of this book, I have broken the playlist down into those three relationships.

For Jess and Emma, I think about Conan Gray. I’m thinking of the song Idle Town, and reminiscing on days when I was in high school wishing to be anywhere else. “This town will never change/People come and go, it's all the same/Speed the roads on our doubting days/To any place that's far away”. Like come on; that is so Jess and Emma coded. Jess and Emma are so in sync at the beginning of their relationship. They are traveling and taking on the world and are happy… for a while. Jess and Emma are sunlight and salty ocean water wrapped up in cozy, warm, bright moments; because that is what they were: a moment.

One of the hardest aspects of Emma and Jess’s relationship for me to read was when he came back. Reading about Emma trying to change herself into someone that she hadn’t been in years made me feel angry and devastated. The song “this is me trying” kept filling my ears with what I thought Emma felt after she lost and found Jess. “I've been having a hard time adjusting/I had the shiniest wheels, now they're rusting/I didn't know if you'd care if I came back/I have a lot of regrets about that.” You’re kidding. That is Emma. Emma wasn’t the same after she lost Jess, and even when he was there she was starting to want something that she had run far from: home. In running home, she found someone she had thought was long gone. Sam.

When I think of Emma and Sam. Wow. Honestly I think Nat King Cole. The song Unforgettable rings as Emma and Sam see each other again in the most beautiful way. “Unforgettable in every way/And forevermore (and forevermore)/That's how you'll stay (that's how you'll stay)/That's why darling, it's incredible/That someone so unforgettable/Thinks that I am unforgettable too.”

I know Sam played this song in his car after Emma agreed to go out with him all those years later. I think of them dancing in the kitchen together while listening to For Sentimental Reasons. “I love you/And you alone were meant for me/Please give your loving heart to me/And say we'll never part.” Sam is calm, soothing, comforting, and steady. Together they are in unison. They aren’t a surprise key change or an unsteady beat. Sam is constant and mature. Sam also reminds me of that song by Laufey: Let you break my heart again. Sam is so hopelessly in love with Emma. It is beautiful.

To wrap up the relationships, I am going to share my perspective on Emma finding herself. This was one of the most frustrating parts of the book for me. I was annoyed with Emma. I thought she was stringing along Sam. (I know she was trying to figure a lot out and I was being hard on her as a character. I know.) It wasn’t until the end of the book that I realized how relatable her journey to finding herself was. It is complicated, annoying, frustrating, and usually takes longer than you would expect. For Emma, I think about Florence and the Machine. I think about the song, The Bomb. “I've blown apart my life for you/And bodies hit the floor for you/And break me, shake me, devastate mе/Come here, baby, tell me that I'm wrong.” I think about Emma not being able to understand her circumstances, and what is happening in her heart. I think about her feeling like she is losing both in trying to pick one. She is a heartbroken girl that is grown up and stuck in an impossible situation. She is relatable.

All that being said… this book was really hard for me to get into. I know. Taylor Jenkins Reid (TJR) is a fantastic writer. I’ve read Seven Husbands, Daisy Jones, and Carrie Soto. TJR is fantastic. This one was just hard for me to get into. Emma was relatable, but so frustrating to me in the beginning, and then as I got to know her I fell more into the story. TJR is one of those mystical writers that is able to create characters that are complicated and full of depth. You can’t hate them but you don’t have to like them either.

The playlist I made for this book was not easy, and as beautiful as certain songs are, the others are devastating. This book is complicated, and rich. It was like drinking a spiced tea for the first time. It is different, but it will only take you a second or two before you find yourself devouring this story.

Before I forget, you don’t have to listen to the playlist in order.