"Wise and witty... Losing It is cringingly insightful about sex and dating and all the ways we tie ourselves into knots over both.... [Rathbone] has a knack for coming up with sharp images and painfully funny observations.... The novel also honors what it feels like to be a smart, overly self-conscious young woman without sugarcoating how crazy self-conscious women can seem. Rathbone slyly constructs a female protagonist who is a product of a sex-crazed culture but not a victim of it.... The genius of Losing It is that Rathbone resists turning her novel into a conventional romance." —New York Times Book Review
“Losing It presents an accurate — and entertaining — depiction of what it feels like to be alive, right now, in this absurd, contemporary moment. Rathbone’s accuracy is what makes her so funny; it’s her grace as a writer that elevates this book from a series of comedic one-liners to art… Emma Rathbone’s project, it turns out, is more ambitious than expected. That’s something to celebrate.” —Edan Lepucki, San Francisco Chronicle
“Like The 40-Year-Old Virgin for Women… There’s something unusually keen about Julia’s observations, both those she makes of herself and those she makes of other people, with a colorful, razor-sharp specificity born of way too much time and energy spent watching life happen to other people.” —Vogue.com
“Rathbone's debut is whip-smart and wonderfully funny — if you're going to add one book to the list this month, let it be this one.” —Refinery29
"Funny and insightful… Rathbone writes with pinpointed accuracy the feelings of discontent and despair that can arise from feeling lost or stuck in life… [She] imbues Julia with such warmth and humor, and writes her with such affection, you can’t help but root for the misguided character even when you want to shake her. This is a testament to Rathbone’s writing and Julia’s voice… Losing It is a terrific and funny meditation on the deep pockets of discontent in life, growing up, and seizing the right opportunities for connection when you can.” —The Rumpus
“Julia’s crises in life and love are cringeworthy in the best possible way and Rathbone’s hilarious novel will leave you begging for more.” —Glamour
Julia Greenfield is 26 years old, and she's trying to lose her virginity. (Got yer attention, eh?) I know this sounds like the plot of a teen comedy, but bear with me, because Losing It is one of the cleverer books about sex I've ever read. This is partly because Emma Rathbone resists, after the initial setup, making anything about her characters cliche — Julia is a delightful and sharply drawn young woman, and her observations about the world of sex and dating are both insightful and hilarious. Julia — like most of us in our '20s — makes some good decisions, and some bad ones, and in the end finds her most central relationship won't have anything to do with sex at all.
— Barrie Hardymon, Weekend Edition, NPR