Losing It

A Novel

By: Emma Rathbone

Narrated by: Jorjeana Marie

Length: 7 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

A hilarious novel that Maggie Shipstead calls "charming...witty and insightful", about a woman who still has her virginity at the age of 26 and the summer she's determined to lose it - and find herself.

"A candid yet funny take on just what desire and love mean." (The Millions)

Julia Greenfield has a problem: She's 26 years old, and she's still a virgin. Sex ought to be easy. People have it all the time! But without meaning to, she made it through college and into adulthood with her virginity intact. Something's got to change.

To reroute herself from her stalled life, Julia travels to spend the summer with her mysterious aunt Vivienne in North Carolina. It's not long, however, before she unearths a confounding secret - her 58-year-old aunt is a virgin, too. In the unrelenting heat of the Southern summer, Julia becomes fixated on puzzling out what could have led to Viv's appalling condition, all while trying to avoid the same fate.

Filled with offbeat characters and subtle, wry humor, Losing It is about the primal fear that you just. Might. Never. Meet. Anyone. It's about desiring something with the kind of obsessive fervor that almost guarantees you won't get it. It's about the blurry lines between sex and love and trying to figure out which one you're going for. And it's about the decisions - and nondecisions - we make that can end up shaping a life.

©2016 Emma Rathbone (P)2016 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"Wise and witty.... Losing It is cringingly insightful about sex and dating and all the ways we tie ourselves into knots over both.... [Rathbone] has a knack for coming up with sharp images and painfully funny observations.... The novel also honors what it feels like to be a smart, overly self-conscious young woman without sugarcoating how crazy self-conscious women can seem. 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." (New York Times Book Review)

“Delightful…. Sweet, funny and unexpectedly poignant, the book is Bridget Jones Diary for the millennial generation.” (People)

"[T]he mysteries of intimacy deepen in this mordant novel about taking charge and letting go.” (O, the Oprah Magazine)

Mildly Annoying

I found this novel mildly annoying for several reasons: I didn’t like the protagonist, Julia Greenfield, a self-absorbed 26-year-old intent on losing her virginity who makes a series of disastrously bad choices during a summer living with her maiden aunt in Durham, N.C., and I didn’t wholly accept the premise that a reasonably attractive, socially adjusted (if shallow) woman would, four years out of college, still have her virginity to lose. I liked her a little better at the end, after she comes to terms with herself and finally succeeds in achieving her goal (with a somewhat feckless but likable-enough colleague from work).

Could have been so much more...

Great idea for a novel that had so many possibilities but just kind of fell flat. I was hoping for laugh out loud moments that just never came. Very slow, very hard to get through.

Too descriptive, bad story

Couldn't finish this one, the story was super slow and ever single detail was over described which is not what I prefer.

Conflicted

I'm confused on whether or not I enjoyed this book. it had a good story line but the climax wasn't what I was expecting it to be. I won't give anything away for those who haven't read it yet, but it does take a couple chapters for the book to truly start getting interesting. it wasn't a bad write, but it wasn't something I would read again. overall, I'm glad I took the time to listen to the book.

Such a boring story!

The whole time I was waiting for something to happen, something spectacular, funny or sad, anything really...

This book is not a light-hearted read, but also lacks any depth to call it intense or gripping.

Not for me

I tried this because the summary seemed interesting. No one on audible had reviewed the book yet but everyone on Amazon gave it an excellent review. I cannot see what the Amazon readers found so interesting. I found Julia Greenfield to be a busy body who would not respect her aunt's home. I could not find or remember the details enough even though I finished the book.
Don't waste your time.