**Spoilers Ahead, Read On With Caution**
Often times, I dip in and out of books I know are going to upset me somehow, or cause visceral reactions that I’ll carry and hold onto for a few days. Meaning, I’ll read one, get emotionally invested and then cannot read something else emotional for a while without feeling utterly drained. OUT OF LOVE is not only visually beautifully because of its cover, but also poetically beautiful in its story telling. The plot structure reminds me a lot of IMAGINE US HAPPY, in that it’s a love story told in reverse. We walk into the characters 
lives at their break up, when they’re right in the thick of untangling their lives and emotions; that’s when we the reader enter.
Starting at the end, the book starts with us meeting Theo and our nameless protagonist (as I write this review it has only just become apparent to me that throughout the entire book, we never discover what the protagonists name is, except for when Theo calls her Angel,) as he’s come round to collect his things from what was once their flat. The story then continues to be told in reverse and has us bouncing through the memories and the timeline of the couple’s relationship.
Despite the reviews floating around online debating the efficiency of telling the story in reverse, this romance definitely benefited from it for me. Without the backwards telling, it could have easily gotten lost in the shuffle of romance fiction which shares a similar plot, instead it feels incredibly unique. I found that there was something so fundamentally heartbreaking about already knowing the conclusion but seeing them get to a point of being so happy and desperately young and in love. The moment of “This is when I know that Theo has fallen out of love with me.” already hits hard because it’s so final, and just sad; but it’s harder to take when we eventually get to the part of the book where “This is the moment I know that Theo is in love with me.” happens. There is something so incredibly sad about watching a couple reach that moment of knowing they’re in love, and knowing it’s doomed to utterly fail, but they’re so in their bubble of falling that you almost forget it.
They’re not the perfect couple, or match, but they tried. I found reading the first half of the book where they’re less happy harder, as it’s such a real fear of mine to get to that point in a relationship where you’re no longer aware that you aren’t happy, and are instead just living in one another’s space. Having it slowly slip into a grey area, and root down there. Our protag and Theo have entered that stage in a relationship where you’re essentially two strangers sleeping next to each other, exchanging pleasantries, and sharing a space. So as you’ve watched them through these moments, you understand why the relationship collapsed.
Towards the end of the book, it’s all light and airy. We get to experience Theo and “Angel” blissfully happy as a couple, and then their meeting. We learn why Theo calls protag Angel, and how they first met. We get to see him all loved up with her, rather than distant and disinterested. We see pure happiness and love blooming. The end of the book makes you forget the beginning and leave you rooting for them both to be in their forever love. It’s bittersweet as we know how it unfolds, but it leaves us hopeful none the less. We even nearly get to see protag introduce herself to Theo, but we still never get a name.
Hazel Hayes is master at slowly pulling us through the plot, but keeping us fully engaged as we slip between memories and chats. This book is beautiful inside-out and I’m sure I’ll remember it for years to come, simply for its spectacular writing, but also to sink into Hazel’s London/Dublin again.
BECAUSE BOOKS 