Miri was whole, once.
She had a best friend, once.
She knew who she was – or she thought she did.
But now she is a million lonely molecules, flying through the air to a new life on the other side of the world. Rome is light and loud and cobblestones and gelaterias and ancient buildings next to modern ones. Rome is new people and a chance to get out of her head. Or is it into her head she needs to go, to find herself again?
Review
I started writing a Q&A for Helena Fox when I realised that I just wanted to talk about all of the things I loved about Loneliness is a Molecule. Since that won’t quite make a compelling Q&A, I thought I’d write this review instead.
Loneliness is a Molecule follows 18-year-old Miri as she grapples with complex grief. Her former best friend, Caleb, just died in an accident. Even before his death though, he had evolved from the boy she loved to one who sexually assaulted her. Miri’s bereavement is layered with deep hurt, trauma, confusion, and shame. Helena Fox portrayed these nuances so well and the emotions were so well-conveyed that I found myself both struggling to keep reading and compelled to continue.
The thing I admired most about Helena Fox’s writing is her characters. Many of them feel like complicated people with their own histories, even if we only catch glimpses of those histories. Miri’s mum is particularly fascinating to me, and she provoked different reactions within me. I really felt Miri’s frustrations about her mother’s overprotectiveness, but I also understood her fears. Even with Miri’s brother, the most straightforwardly awful person in the book, there was a tiny space left to interpret that maybe he is not a totally unredeemable ass. I was content for the story to not explore that possibility though.
On the topic of nuance, I really enjoyed how the story did not go for easy answers when it comes to Caleb. Through Miri’s memories, we saw the way Caleb changed over the years, including how his father’s grief and maladaptive coping strategies hardened him, and how this might have affected Caleb. This story was clear, however, that we cannot draw a clear causal line from this to his choices to be cruel or to assault young women. These choices will never make sense or be okay.
Also, I have never been to Italy, but this book made me feel like I was there. Not in a wistful, ‘I wish I was there’, rom-com shiny way, but rather that I felt grounded where Miri was, even if it was in the fancy house she did not leave for days.
Overall, this is a beautifully written book that articulates a difficult subject with care and deftly balances messy mix of emotions. It’s my first 5-star book of 2026.
Thank you to Pan Macmillan Australia for the review copy.
Review by Priscilla
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