Book Review: All About Romance by Daniel Tawse

‘All About Romance’ by Daniel Tawse was released in 2023. It tells the story of Roman Bright and their final year at secondary school, after a tumultuous end of Year Ten.

As a young, queer student, Roman Bright is being treated horribly by their classmates. After being dubbed a creep by their ex – if you could call him that – JJ Dixon, accusing them of kissing him and coming onto him completely unsolicited. Mortified, JJ’s friends lash out and one particular arsehole tipped a whole bottle of coke over them, humiliating them.

Roman Bright was an interesting character, but I wanted to punch them in the face, consistently throughout the novel. They are fifteen or sixteen years old during this story, vulnerable, frustrated and lonely. They are going through an awful time, but their internal monologue felt so grating and blindisghted. I wanted to shake them by the shoulders and tell them to take a breath and stop for a second. The bullying they endured was disgusting and very realistic, teenagers are nasty, vicious beings.

The problem was that throughout the story, Roman is given reality checks from their friends, Adam, Solange, Beau all tell them to, essentially, get a grip. But I agreed with the harsh words their friends were saying, even the cruel ones. I did find them obnoxious. I did find them selfish. It drove me crazy. Especially since most of their thoughts and internal monologue was punctuated with pop culture references that will date this novel exponentially within a matter of years.

To be perfectly honest, this book wasn’t my favourite. I was so excited to read it, and I thought it was so predictable, I guessed who the infamous Big Red was by Chapter 6 at the latest and I was 100% correct. Maybe it’s because I am significantly older than the target demographic but I saw most of the big plot points coming. It was hard to enjoy the book when you add that to my opinions on Roman.

I really didn’t enjoy this book very much. The motifs such as the running metaphors about Grease and how it applies to Roman’s life was fantastic. I loved how Roman goes from comparing their experiences to Frenchie and Rizzo and Sandy, and tries to find the drama and joy and force it to fit their life even when things were awful. Aspects of this story, such as Roman’s appreciate for queer media, films and pop culture made them unique and interesting. Their stance on rules in school was incredibly anarchic but I thought it made lots of sense for their character, despite my dislike of their internal monologue.

There were beautiful, transparent and tender moments between the characters that I really appreciated, which I will not spoil, but I will warn you that this book details child abuse, and homophobia.

Although this is not a title I will be revisiting, it could easily be your next favourite