Book Review: “Loveless” by “Alice Oseman” - A Story Not About Love but Friendship

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This is a story about an eighteen-year-old girl Georgia, who is experiencing a lot of change in her life. She is joining college and this change has made her aware of another important aspect of her life, her sexuality. We go on a journey of self-discovery and self-acceptance with her. 

Introduction 

Book’s Name - Loveless

Author’s Name - Alice Oseman 

Genre - Contemporary Fiction

Language - English 

Synopsis ( Spoiler Free )

Georgia, who is eighteen, has never been in love, had a crush on a guy or a girl, or been kissed. She's been telling her pals for years that she likes one of the guys from school, but when he makes a move on prom night, she's disgusted with herself and realizes that it was all a ruse and that she's never felt that way about anyone and doesn't want to be kissed.

When she and her pals Pip and Jason relocate to Durham University, she hopes that her feelings toward kissing and sex would change, so she sets out to be like everyone else and meet that special someone with the help of her new roommate and their acting club.

However, romance and love don't come easy to her, she takes a journey to finally make new relationships, explore and accept her sexuality and realize the importance of the relationships in her life.

About the Author 

Alice Oseman (she/they) is a novelist and illustrator from Kent, England, who was born in 1994. Solitaire, Radio Silence, I was born for this, and Loveless are her four YA contemporary novels about teenage disasters. They’re also the creator of Heartstopper, an LGBTQ+ YA romance webcomic that's now available in print from Hachette Children's Books.

Solitaire, Alice's first novel, was published when she was nineteen years old. Her YA books have received nominations for the YA Book Prize, the Inky Awards, and the Goodreads Choice Award, and her novel Heatstopper has been recently adopted as a TV show on Netflix which has gained a lot of popularity.

About the Book 

Loveless is a young adult novel about a young girl who feels different because she has never felt passionate or even had butterflies over another person. She is well-versed in romance and her preferences, such as a big white wedding. She like the idea of spending the rest of her life with someone, it’s the romantic and sexual part that she is not able to comprehend.

“I was going to try harder. I wanted forever love. I didn’t want to be loveless.”

She has been really inexperienced in the area of romance as compared to her peers. But she never really gave it much attention as she thought it would eventually happen to her, with the right person at the right time. Her sense of herself is shaken when she realizes she is disgusted by the idea of being romantic or sexual with someone. 

This realization leaves her wondering about herself and her sexuality. The story then proceeds to Georgia questioning her sexuality and finally accepting herself. The readers take this journey of self-exploration with her and get to educate themselves about the asexual and aromantic spectrum of sexuality. We go through her confusion, anger, frustration, and acceptance together with her.

“I was angry at fate for dealing me these cards. Even though I knew there was nothing wrong with me- I didn't know how to get to the point where this would stop feeling like a burden and instead feel like something good, something I could celebrate, something I could share with the world.”

The thing she found most difficult to terms with was that she couldn’t escape romance and love. It was everywhere. Humans create their whole lives around romance and love and to imagine a life without it feels incomplete. 

“In the end, that was the problem with romance. It was so easy to romanticize romance because it was everywhere.”

This story also highlights the importance of friends and platonic relationships in one's life. We don't often see stories with good platonic relationships that have an impact on your life as much as romantic relationships, if not more. It makes us realize that our life is not ‘incomplete’ without romantic love, your friends and friendships are just as impactful.

“Friends are automatically classed as ‘less important than romantic partners. I’d never questioned that. It was just the way the world was. I guess I’d always felt that friendship just couldn’t compete with what a partner offered and that I’d never really experience love until I found romance.”

“Like the way friendship can be just as intense, beautiful, and endless as romance. Like the way there’s love everywhere around me - there’s love for my friends, there’s love for myself. There’s even love for my parents in there somewhere. Deep down.”

This book has amazing representation with a great cast of characters. The stories of the side characters are given just as importance as the readers are just as involved. We get to see real teenagers with real problems in this story. We get to see some real bonds between the characters and the love between them is so pure it melts your heart. 

“Give your friendships the magic you would give a romance. Because they’re just as important. Actually, for us, they’re may more important.”

My rating for this book is 5 on 5

Get your copy on Amazon 

Written By - Kritika Sharma