Is This Love?

LoveReading Says

Often uncomfortable, and always authentic, CE Riley’s Is This Love? packs thought-provoking punch. From the throes of first lust and love, to the ugliness of bitter divorce proceedings, through accusations of controlling, belittling, abusive behaviour disseminated through legal documents, this shard of real-life grittiness provokes readers to question the nature of love, marriage, manipulation, and how we treat those who are closest to us.

Narrated by J in the months after their marriage breaks down and they’re issued with divorce papers, Is This Love? presents conflicting accounts of who was to blame for a devastating break-up. There’s rawness and searing heat, and icy cold-heartedness, and really it’s impossible to know who’s telling the truth. The legal documents J receives detail abusive behaviour J is alleged to have committed during the marriage - accounts that enrage J, whose version of events contradicts those of the documents.

That J’s gender is never revealed adds an extra layer of power to this spark of gritty short fiction that exposes the worst of human behaviour with extraordinary aplomb. As J remarks, “How quickly poison takes hold”, and that poison runs through Is This Love? with breathtaking potency.

Reviewed by Joanne Owen
Joanne Owen’s lifelong love of reading and writing began when she was growing up in Pembrokeshire, and very much wished that witches (and Mrs Pepperpot) were real.
More reviews by Joanne Owen

About Is This Love?

'This is a book about the untidy, complicated underbelly of love and love's end. Funny and true, wise and utterly authentic, you will recognise yourself over and over. I loved it.' Kit de Waal Did you mean to marry me?

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