Millennial Love

A 2021 ‘BOOK TO LOOK OUT FOR’ – THE INDEPENDENT

‘A mouthpiece for our anxieties and a tonic for our hearts.’ Charly Cox

‘Funny and honest.’ Pandora Sykes

‘Offers readers of all stripes and ages a great overview of relationships in the digital era’. Matt Haig

In Millennial Love journalist Olivia Petter explores the questions, quirks and anxieties that consume the contemporary dating landscape.

Olivia scrutinises the myths surrounding modern romance and asks why, despite having endless technology designed to aid communication, it’s harder to meet someone now than ever before.

The book is based on the Independent’s chart-topping podcast of the same name and expands on some of the issues discussed on the show, including why contraception is a feminist issue, how dating apps have altered our understanding of attraction, and how 'Love Island' became the unlikely lens through which the consequences of so many of these things were exposed.

Other topics covered include read receipt anxiety, why we need to rethink our relationship with porn, and the significance of ‘sliding into someone’s DMs’.

By combining memoir with social commentary and insights from former podcast guests, including Munroe Bergdorf, Elizabeth Day and Lisa Taddeo, Millennial Love is an essential handbook on what it means to love today.

Reviews

‘Millennial Love is easy to read and Petter is an engaging guide to sensitive, personal subjects. The author is also remarkably candid about her own insecurities and mistakes, and brave enough to detail some of her own harrowing experiences. Hopefully, this honest, important book will leave a lot of young readers feeling more reassured and better informed about their own lives.’ THE INDEPENDENT

‘A mouthpiece for our anxieties and a tonic for our hearts, Petter perfectly dissects why we’re not insane when it comes to love, the realities are their own madness.’ CHARLY COX

‘Funny and honest.’ PANDORA SYKES

‘Olivia Petter is a great journalist and a sharp-eyed chronicler of modern life and offers readers of all stripes and ages a great overview of relationships in the digital era’. MATT HAIG

‘This is a sharp, funny and reassuring memoir-cum-chronicle of the modern dating landscape, charting everything from the trope of “the cool girl” to the tribulations of contraception in a voice that melds journalistic scrutiny with commendable frankness. Petter’s is a world in which Sylvia Plath, Love Island, Pandora Sykes and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days collide with satisfying verve…’ Vanity Fair London

‘Honest, hilarious and heart-breaking’ Mail Plus

‘Olivia Petter archly discusses and deconstructs the trials and tribulations of dating today with the help of former podcast guests including Munroe Bergdorf and Elizabeth Day, to brilliant effect.’ BURO London

About the author

Olivia Petter is a journalist and broadcaster based in London. She has written for The Sunday Times, British Vogue, Grazia, Refinery29, and The Independent, where she is the in-house Relationships Writer and host of its chart-topping Millennial Love podcast. This is her first book.