MY REAL-LIFE ROM-COM

Berk shares stories about her dating experiences in this advice guide/memoir.

“Like Carrie Bradshaw, I’m a New York City native who has always been interested in love and relationships,” writes the author, a blogger whose given name is Caroline but always called “Carrie” (“my mom adored the [Sex and the City] character when she worked as a writer on the HBO website”). Berk, who notes that she has been “boy crazy from the second my parents stuck me in elementary school,” dedicates 13 chapters to specific relationships, including “The Bar Mitzvah Boy,” “The First Love,” “The Pandemic Fling,” and “The Dating App Disaster(s)” (her “First Love” is a fellow popular influencer, an Australian boy on a United States media tour with her). She concludes the book with a chapter entitled “The Journey to Self-Love,” detailing her “anxiety journey,” which involved being diagnosed with generalized anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder and her growing realization that “if I were insecure in my own skin, it would be impossible to understand and accept love from others.” The author scatters info boxes throughout the book, including “Learn the Lingo” definitions focused on online behavior (like “kittenfishing” and “zombieing”) and advice on topics such as “What to Keep in Mind for Your First Hookup” and “How to Slide Into DMs.” Berk, the co-author (with her mother) of several children’s books series, here offers a compelling portrait of growing up with a large part of your life playing out online. She beautifully captures the bravado and uncertainty involved in online bantering and the often jarring IRL meetups that follow. Some of Berk’s “hookup” anecdotes are quite amusing (such as her dealing with a chin-biter in “The Vampire”), but she also offers a wealth of serious insights and guidance worth heeding.

An entertaining and enlightening account of coming of age as a Gen Z digital native.