When the series poster for Netflix’s Too Much rolled out and the announcement was made that Lena Dunham would be back in the director’s chair with an all new rom-com starring Will Sharpe (a man of will in the sexy Sicilian White Lotus franchise) and Megan Stalter – the effervescent Kayla from multi-award-winning dramedy Hacks – the internet was ablaze; millennials were summoned and zillenials were triggered.
Whether you know Dunham as the literal icon/mastermind behind and before the infamous series GIRLS (which raised many a generation!), or from the end credits of the pilot episode of Industry, or from countless book cover shouts (each being an automatic buy – duh!), she is wickedly in tune with the uniquities of everyday life, the inner-workings of women on the verge and the vulnerability of becoming undone all while searching for a matching pair of socks – or person. There is something to say about the men that she writes too … we’ll let you Adam Driver your way into that conversation.
Too Much sits right up there as some of the best television we’ve binged this year!
Enter Felix and Jess, the epitome of opposites attract. New York meets London. Thinks-last-and-jumps-to-conclusions-first girl meets gentle-listener-and-attentive boy. Same old classic love story, right? Wrong! Did we mention there’s a dog (a dog by biology) named Astrid?
Littered with one-liners (that are actually funny), bold and fun wardrobe decisions, chaotic family dynamics (Stephen Fry!), Rita Ora, and questionable yet doting friendships, Too Much unwraps a love that flickers over an exchange of bog roll and travels downtown London past a couple of blue doors and through the days of past, present and what ifs.
If you’re like us and nursing an ever-growing void since binge-watching Too Much and need your next fix, well, we have the perfect reading list just for you.
‘Not that Kind of Girl’ by Lena Dunham
If you want to live in the mind of Dunham a little longer, it might be worth revisiting her essay collection, Not That Kind of Girl – a series of dispatches from the frontlines of the struggle that is growing up and everything in between.
Upon publication in 2024, Dunham wrote: “I’m already predicting my future shame at thinking I had anything to offer you … But if I can take what I’ve learned and make one menial job easier for you, or prevent you from having the kind of sex where you feel you must keep your sneakers on in case you want to run away during the act, then every misstep of mine will have been worthwhile.”
‘Cleopatra and Frankenstein’ by Coco Mellors
Manic Pixie Dream Girl Cleo meets Frank outside a New Year’s Eve party (think Jess, in her white sailor dress, meeting Felix for the first time … outside the pub). He is 20 years her senior, he’s gorgeous, successful and is about to change her life. They fall in love in an instant, and what follows is the kind of love story we all want, but don’t need.
Not only does this book brilliantly capture their roller coaster ride of a relationship, but it also paints a striking portrait of a life lived in New York City.
‘Evenings and Weekends’ by Oisín McKenna
This is a love story set over a delicious weekend in London during a heatwave. As the temperature rises, so do the tensions between friends, family and lovers.
It has been described as “strikingly heartfelt, sexually charged, and disarmingly comic … it is a mesmerising dive into the soul of a city and a searing look at what it takes to build a life there”.
‘Queenie’ by Candice Carty-Williams
Bridget Jones’s Diary (or British Jones Diary, according to Jess) meets Americanah in this disarmingly honest, boldly political and truly inclusive novel that will speak to anyone who has gone looking for love and found something very different in its place.
‘You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty’ by Akwaeke Emezi
Akwaeke Emezi’s vivid and passionate writing takes us deep into a world of possibility and healing, and the constant bravery of choosing love against all odds (and a middle finger to insecure men – ahem, Zev).
‘Placeholders’ by James Roseman
Placeholders follow the story of Aaron, who has built himself a life of solitary routine following the death of his brother five years prior – until he meets Róisín. They fall into a relationship that feels a lot like home, but their disparate religious backgrounds challenge their future together. As they learn more about themselves and each other, their story is pushed to a breaking point … and then Róisín realises that she is pregnant.
GQ named this one of the best books of 2024, spotlighting it as a “subtle depiction of the blurring of lines between religion and community, between love and obligation, rich with the sort of present-moment nostalgia that there’s almost certainly a German word for”.
‘Expectation’ by Anna Hope
In this sharply observed novel set in and around London, three college friends, now in their 30s, must come to terms with the gap between the lives they imagined for themselves and reality in the face of marriage, fertility struggles and loss. The big love story at play here is the one shared between these friends. It is very GIRLS coded.
‘Conversations with Friends’ by Sally Rooney
If Dunham comes first, then Sally Rooney is the runner-up. Her magnificent debut, Conversations with Friends, challenges everything we know about conventional relationships and offers us something new … a complex ménage à quatre.
It is startling, beautiful, chilling and heartbreaking all at once.
‘One Day’ by David Nicholls
1988. Dexter Mayhew. Emma Morley. The start of a love story for the ages. There is not much more to say here other than you need to read it before you watch it.
‘Exciting Times’ by Naoise Dolan
This is a book that will have you wondering what is in the water over in Ireland, why it is that Irish writers have mastered the art of writing about modern love, and can we have some of that water in South Africa?
Ava, newly arrived in Hong Kong from Dublin, spends her days teaching English to rich children. Julian is a banker. A banker who likes to spend money on Ava, to have sex and discuss fluctuating currencies with her. But when she asks whether he loves her, he cannot say more than “I like you a great deal” (cue Felix). Enter Edith. A Hong Kong-born lawyer, striking and ambitious, Edith takes Ava to the theatre and leaves her tulips in the hallway. Ava wants to be her – and wants her.
‘Okay Days’ by Jenny Mustard
Sam is 28, Swedish and spending the summer in London, working for a top marketing agency. Over the course of the sticky summer months, she falls hard for the very lovely Lucas, who is trying his best to get his shit together (cue Felix, again). They both know their relationship can’t last. Nobody can be this happy forever, surely?
‘Family Meal’ by Bryan Washington
An irresistible, intimate novel about how those who know us the longest – even when they hurt us most – can also set the benchmark for love, and how some of our deepest conversations unfurl over a delicious meal (or cold pho reheated by a gentleman named Felix).
Follow Shakti Pillay on instagram here, and Maryam Adams here.
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