Reviewer: Nat Baker

Narrated by the authors, Make It Make Sense is a conversation between friends, for friends of the past, present and future. It’s conversation you really need at the end of a hard day, and while I listened to this book on public transport, while cooking dinner and clearing out my wardrobe—I’d recommend that you grab a drink, settle on your sofa, shoes kicked off, mascara smudged, like no one cares and plug in. For this conversation, all you need is your truth, what you’ve learned from life so far—everything you need is already in you. This is the central tenant of the book and, in many ways, the phenomenon that is SYSCA.

Sh*t You Should Care About—‘SYSCA’ for short (said ‘Siss-Cah’)—is a media company that “cuts through the bullshit” to share what’s happening in the news via social media, e-news and podcasts. The Internet (referred in the Acknowledgements as ‘our own personal god’) has relayed the story of how it all started many times over: Lucy Blakiston, a former-teenaged-online-One Direction-fangirl grows up, deletes everything and embarks on a university degree in International Relations. In 2018, bored and confused during a lecture, she messages her two BFFs with the idea of breaking news down in accessible, but also fun ways (note: Harry Styles will always be salient). The three unite and a media empire is born. Fast forward, Blakiston meets Bel Hawkins and SYSCA expands further, to include not just what’s happening in the world around us, but also what’s happening inside of us, in our hearts, minds and souls. After years of ‘words for the newsy’ and more than 3 million followers later, the two have now penned Make It Make Sense: an offline guide to life during online times.

Resembling Mark Manson’s The Subtle Art of not giving a F*ck (which is really about defining which f*cks you do give) Make It Make Sense is also part-memoir in that it draws heavily on the lived experience of both authors, their work; relationships: romantic, platonic and familial; their travels; and their personal encounters with burnout, illness and heart-breaking loss. However, Make It Make Sense delighted most in reminding me of Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed—where Strayed reads a selection of advice columns written under her moniker ‘Sugar’ at The Rumpus. Like Tiny Beautiful Things, Make It Make Sense is pointed in its observations of our daily grind, the cost of living, finding love and the effects of being chronically online, while also being graceful with advice dispensed on how to rise above it all and ‘phoenix’ regardless. At times Blakiston will make you cry, Hawkins will have you nodding and shaking your head—but they will also make you laugh about things you might not relate to (see: rat-girling) or relate too much to. I thought I was the only one to deliver a boardroom presentation taking vomit-breaks at half-time.

Blakiston makes a strong case for ‘crushing’ and obsession as a pathway to happiness—skills she learned from crushing on One Direction led her to where she is now. Hawkins in her pursuit of ‘good love’ and a sustainable working environment perhaps paints a more realistic picture—you can follow your dreams, and you should, but sometimes you might end up broke after buying water from a witch, really tired and needing to quit.

The format and style of the book deliberately mirrors the novelty of our modern conversational forms, the way we switch from in-person catch-ups to online messaging without pause, and the listening experience is immersive and lively as a result. Blakiston and Hawkins’ big hearts and relentless pursuit of joy through connection with others shines through in their choice of such personal formats, shifting from text exchanges to personal essays, list-poems and imagined movie scenes—all of which will pull you in, hold you close—assert that there’s a place for you here too, just as you are.

Title: Make It Make Sense: From Shit You Should Care About's Lucy Blakiston and Bel Hawkins
By: Lucy Blakiston and Bel Hawkins
Narrated by: Lucy Blakiston and Bel Hawkins
Length: 7 hours 1 minute

Nat Baker is a writer based in Auckland. Her stories have been published at Newsroom, Takahē, Turbine, Headland, Milly Magazine and others.