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Make It Make Sense: From Shit You Should Care About's Lucy Blakiston and Bel Hawkins
The debut book from the authors behind the global media sensation Shit You Should Care About.
Shit You Should Care about was launched as a WordPress blog by three best friends in the back of a political science lecture. Today it's a global ecosystem of content - two podcasts, 3.5 million Instagram followers and a daily newsy. They are your culture vultures, news agents and (reluctant) agony aunts all rolled into one.
MAKE IT MAKE SENSE is a collage of cultural analysis, anecdotes, personal essays, poems and lists, interplayed like a conversation between friends. So sharp they'll make you wince, so honest that you might feel uncomfortable with what's reflecting back at you, so funny you'll want to take a photo and send it to your best friend.
It's the bedside table essential for women who've felt their way through life and want that experience reflected back at them. When everything feels like it's whooshing away in an endless scroll, MAKE IT MAKE SENSE holds the answers (or questions) to what to do with all these big feelings.
Shit You Should Care about was launched as a WordPress blog by three best friends in the back of a political science lecture. Today it's a global ecosystem of content - two podcasts, 3.5 million Instagram followers and a daily newsy. They are your culture vultures, news agents and (reluctant) agony aunts all rolled into one.
MAKE IT MAKE SENSE is a collage of cultural analysis, anecdotes, personal essays, poems and lists, interplayed like a conversation between friends. So sharp they'll make you wince, so honest that you might feel uncomfortable with what's reflecting back at you, so funny you'll want to take a photo and send it to your best friend.
It's the bedside table essential for women who've felt their way through life and want that experience reflected back at them. When everything feels like it's whooshing away in an endless scroll, MAKE IT MAKE SENSE holds the answers (or questions) to what to do with all these big feelings.
279 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 11, 2024
240 people are currently reading
3,068 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 146 reviews
October 3, 2024
Actually, this book couldn’t have come at a better time. It provided me the exact reassurance I’ve been seeking and guidance on topics and conversations I’ve been having with friends around tables, on walks and on couches for this whole year. Bel and Luce feel like friends too - and the way they articulate their thoughts and feelings are just relatable and lovely and straight to it.
I want to buy a copy of this book and give it to everyone I love.
A book on navigating friendships and grief and work and love and heartbreak and making sense of things, especially your twenties.
I was nodding along and giggling at points and then found myself sobbing a few minutes later. The lot. Big big recommend.
I want to buy a copy of this book and give it to everyone I love.
A book on navigating friendships and grief and work and love and heartbreak and making sense of things, especially your twenties.
I was nodding along and giggling at points and then found myself sobbing a few minutes later. The lot. Big big recommend.
September 16, 2024
loved it - little bias , but ALSO just will make you feel better about still figuring it all out in your 20s 🥹
September 26, 2024
INCREDIBLE. I loved everything about this book. It made me laugh, cry, and reflect but ultimately it made me feel so seen. So relatable and so beautifully written.
September 15, 2024
it all makes sense now
September 22, 2024
Five stars for my kiwi girlies. I don't know them but I'm so proud of them! Their writing and vulnerability made me cry and feel all the feels. The friendship parts were my favourites. If you liked everything I know about love by Dolly Alderton then I think you will love. I listened on audiobook and I think it would be better read rather than listened to because some of the nuanced writing styles (i.e. The essays/poetry type parts that were lots of short sentences) would be better understood being able to see where the full stops were.
December 16, 2024
Precies wat ik nodig had.
(Niet lang meer voor mijn boekendoel dus in een soort hyperfocus aan het lezen, denk niet dat ik het ga redden. Mijn ŷ app zal boos op me zijn?? Waarom doe ik dit??)
(Niet lang meer voor mijn boekendoel dus in een soort hyperfocus aan het lezen, denk niet dat ik het ga redden. Mijn ŷ app zal boos op me zijn?? Waarom doe ik dit??)
February 15, 2025
This was a very nice book to read. It gave me the same vibes as reading Dolly Alderton's 'Everything I know about Love'.
February 15, 2025
I definitely would have got a lot more out of this book if I’d been 23 when I read it instead of 38, but I would never presume that I can’t learn anything from people who are younger than me. This is a joyful book about life and love and friendship and the internet and I very much enjoyed reading it.
March 2, 2025
"In among the disappointment of what was categorically meant to be the loneliest time of my life, I became the most alive I'd ever been. Down there in the ashes of realising the person I had chosen was not the person I needed, I found what I'd lost along the way: who I wanted to be."
Right book-right time, forever grateful for launching my rat girl winter
Reading this felt like a long overdue catch-up with a bestie, a meandering conversation in glittering candlelight over bottles of cheap wine, a pep talk and a 20-second hug.
Perfect for dipping in and out of, more of an extended blog post than a book. Any millennial in the Western world will have plenty of moments of recognition and validation, from platonic and romantic relationship milestones to moving abroad (or not), unsuccesfully attempting a work-life balance to imposter syndrome, feat. handy quizzes like "Should I escape my life or am I just tired?" or "you know you're burning out when you're fantasising about burning your workplace down".
Right book-right time, forever grateful for launching my rat girl winter
Reading this felt like a long overdue catch-up with a bestie, a meandering conversation in glittering candlelight over bottles of cheap wine, a pep talk and a 20-second hug.
Perfect for dipping in and out of, more of an extended blog post than a book. Any millennial in the Western world will have plenty of moments of recognition and validation, from platonic and romantic relationship milestones to moving abroad (or not), unsuccesfully attempting a work-life balance to imposter syndrome, feat. handy quizzes like "Should I escape my life or am I just tired?" or "you know you're burning out when you're fantasising about burning your workplace down".
September 19, 2024
Love love love. Laughed out loud, sobbed, paused for thought. Already recommended to everyone I know!
September 18, 2024
Lucy and Bel have done such a fantastic job of writing about all the unspoken things we think we’re dealing with by ourselves, and having that written and validated by someone else does amazing things for a wee brain. I cried, I chuckled, I cried some more and will be popping this one on the bookshelf for times of need and reassurance 🤍
Do not recommend reading whilst ovulating if you’re prone to being overly emotional 😂 But aside from that, I will be recommending that every female I know in her 20’s & 30’s to pick up a copy.
Do not recommend reading whilst ovulating if you’re prone to being overly emotional 😂 But aside from that, I will be recommending that every female I know in her 20’s & 30’s to pick up a copy.
October 29, 2024
Not sure what I was expecting.. but I found this book really random/all over the show?? That being said I did get a lot of the chapter on grief.. and did enjoy some of the little personal anecdotes.
January 30, 2025
This book is for people who make friendships their everything
This book is for people who relate a little too much to Jo March
This book is for people who want to delete the internet but can’t get off Instagram
This book is for people who relate a little too much to Jo March
This book is for people who want to delete the internet but can’t get off Instagram
February 20, 2025
loved it these girlies are so sweet this book gave everything i know about love vibes in the best way possible
February 25, 2025
what a *delicious* read
September 27, 2024
Any1 who has or will be in their 20s should read this. Esp if ur a girl boss and just trying figure it all out . Chur for real
October 3, 2024
I have been a SYCSA fan for a long time so I couldn’t wait to read this book, and safe to say it did not disappoint. This book is so well written and a bible for anyone in their 20s. It was candid, raw, honest and funny. It also made me cry multiple times.
January 25, 2025
the worst shit i have ever read. a perfect reflection of how self-centered and deeply boring SYSCA is. it's embarrassing how poorly this book is written � "book" and "written" are both very generous terms here. it's very obvious that annabel and lucy (sorry, not going along with the cutesy nickname shit, we are not friends) have inauthentic text conversations because they think it will read as funny in the "book". lucy thinks lists = literature for some reason and that the key to good writing is repetition. i did not buy this, or i would be demanding my money back (i read it at the bookstore, thank god). an insult to the fact that some people work so hard all their lives to get book deals, and these girls get one handed to them on a silver platter and completely butcher it. one star because me and my friends got a really good laugh out of mocking it.
October 14, 2024
An absolutely gorgeous, devour-in-one-day read. Very Kiwi coded 🥝 Bel and Lucy are so wise without being preachy. There were a few grammatical mistakes - missing full stops, extra spaces etc but nothing that detracted from the overall read. I’ll definitely be revisiting to annotate ❤️
September 13, 2024
I didn’t go into this book with the notion of it being a self-help book, or a deep dive of NZ’s new media of the way Shit You Should Care About paved the way for many.
I read this book with an open mind, ready to immerse myself and support fellow NZ authors who have already accomplished so much (please accept this compliment in the first go).
It made me self-reflect and adore the learnings from simple things like watching a tv show, fangirling over a specific boy band or travelling.
We learn from everything we do, and it’s awesome to see how that shapes people and how people can curate these experiences into learnings.
I ended up annotating the heck out of this book because there were so many passages where I feel like I would love to re-read, little reminders that I would need on a bad day.
This book feels like a great big hug with a love story devoted to life itself 🫶🏽
I read this book with an open mind, ready to immerse myself and support fellow NZ authors who have already accomplished so much (please accept this compliment in the first go).
It made me self-reflect and adore the learnings from simple things like watching a tv show, fangirling over a specific boy band or travelling.
We learn from everything we do, and it’s awesome to see how that shapes people and how people can curate these experiences into learnings.
I ended up annotating the heck out of this book because there were so many passages where I feel like I would love to re-read, little reminders that I would need on a bad day.
This book feels like a great big hug with a love story devoted to life itself 🫶🏽
November 29, 2024
every woman on the planet should read this book
September 18, 2024
what a gorgeous, gorgeous book - love your work luce & bel!!! (especially the content on shit you should care about)
September 11, 2024
Stayed up until 1am to finish it. Will I be exhausted for work? Yes. Was it worth it? A BIG YES. Gorg read helping make sense of the world. J’adore Luce and Bel.
December 13, 2024
This book fell a bit flat for me 😬 I’d say 80% of the essays/stories didn’t stick while 20% did. And the 20% that did really did stick! So much so that I made little comments in my notes app lol. But overall I felt like it was a bit disjointed. Nonetheless love these girls!! Solid ⭐️⭐️⭐️
December 6, 2024
Some of it was great 10/10 would recommend to a friend, so relevant, feel the feels etc. but most of it wasn’t and it was like reliving teenage angst, but someone else’s angst ygm?
Finished on a Sunday morning in bed xoxo
Finished on a Sunday morning in bed xoxo
December 17, 2024
I’ve never rated anything a one star, literally the worst couldn’t even finish the book. after reading the first few chapters and realising it was going absolutely no where, I flicked through the rest hoping it would go somewhere, was completely all over the place with so much completely irrelevant and random add in that to me felt like had nothing to do with the book. May as well just be an autobiography. Very misleading. Don’t waste your time if you’re looking for a self help book.
December 29, 2024
an INSTANT classic in my humble opinion. dolly alderton has nothing on lucy and bel for a girl from new zealand who grew up online. couldn't have come at a better time, and it's almost eerie how relevant a lot of this book is to my current state of mind and life journey.
i cried within the first 50 pages, then cried countless more times throughout the rest. this feels like a self help book that is actually worth listening to, and i already feel so blessed to have lucy and bel's wisdom in my back pocket let alone in physical form. i see myself rereading this many times, and even broke my absolute hard rule of not cornering pages or highlighting.
what a beautiful, stunning read. i would recommend this to absolutely anyone and can't see anyone not enjoying this.
i cried within the first 50 pages, then cried countless more times throughout the rest. this feels like a self help book that is actually worth listening to, and i already feel so blessed to have lucy and bel's wisdom in my back pocket let alone in physical form. i see myself rereading this many times, and even broke my absolute hard rule of not cornering pages or highlighting.
what a beautiful, stunning read. i would recommend this to absolutely anyone and can't see anyone not enjoying this.
December 24, 2024
This book was brilliant, relevant, beautiful and heartbreaking all at the same time! Lucy and Bel put words together so well and it makes you realise that we’re all living the same life. Great book to read towards the end of the year also, loooooved it!!!
April 10, 2025
Listened to this as an audiobook but I’m not sure it works too well as an audiobook unfortunately!
Sorry but the endless lists rather than full sentences were a bit painful to listen to - seemed to be never ending!
3 stars for the nostalgia and 1D twitter fandom throwbacks.
Sorry but the endless lists rather than full sentences were a bit painful to listen to - seemed to be never ending!
3 stars for the nostalgia and 1D twitter fandom throwbacks.
September 23, 2024
Like a kiwi version of Everything I Know About Live by Dolly Alderton. Reminescent of their Insta posts in that there's heaps of brain dumps and poetry-style blog snippets. Was relateable but got a bit repetitive after a while. 4 stars :)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 146 reviews
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