“Give your friendships the magic you would give a romance. Because they’re just as important. Actually, for us, they’re way more important.”
Since her last novel, I Was Born for This, which published in 2018, Alice Oseman has released three volumes of her heartwarming graphic novel, Heartstopper. Now, in 2020, the British author has done it again; she has written a fantastic and relatable novel capable of moving every single reader to their core. Loveless is, above all, a story about what it feels like to come to terms with being aro/ace in a world where romance and sex seem to be the ultimate goal in life.
For the first section of the novel, Georgia goes in circles, trying to convince herself of her need to find a partner and, therefore, love. She has never had a crush or kissed anyone, so she feels like university is her time to shine… until she comes to terms with her sexuality and her entire life begins to make sense. Despite its title, Loveless is a novel overflowing with love: self-love, platonic love, friendship, and romantic love, you name it. All of them are part of the novel, showing how much love surrounds asexual and aromantic people, even if society’s ideal of love might say otherwise. Georgia’s story demonstrates that you don’t have to be in a relationship to experience (or witness) love. Love is everywhere and all of its forms are equally important.
Radio Silence and I Was Born for This already showed us how powerfully compelling and intoxicating the friendships in Alice Oseman’s books are. However, Loveless is the cherry on top, officially crowning the British author as the queen of friendships. Her craftsmanship when portraying the love between friends is outstanding. Fun, realistic, heartwarming, bittersweet… the friendships and bonds that she establishes between her characters are truly alive between the pages of the novel. Friendships are hardly ever the centre of attention in literature, so her novels are always an oasis of endless kindness, care, and loving between friends.
In line with her previous works, each and every single character is given a differentiated voice that makes them stand out from the rest of the line-up. In the case of Loveless, even though the entire narration depends on Georgia’s first-person voice, her three best friends—Pip, Rooney, and Jason—have their very own lives, struggles, and relationships. You are definitely going to love Pip and Rooney’s banter, mutual pinning! Even Sunil, who is Georgia’s non-binary college parent and is more of a secondary character that the rest, has enough presence as a fully-fledged character to become one of the most lovable people on the novel.
Divided into five parts, Loveless maintains a steady pace that gives the author enough room to imbue the story with plenty of nuance and emotion. There is no doubt that Alice Oseman put extreme care into portraying this very particular coming-out story, not only for those readers who could identify with Georgia’s experience, but also for those who may have never heard about the asexual spectrum before. Oseman takes her time to explain what the asexual and aromantic experience is in detail, not only limiting herself to Georgia’s particular story. Through her relatable examples and her kind reassurance, she shows that all asexual experiences are completely normal and valid. Some may say that, at times, her explanations feel a bit info-dumpy. However, taking into account that many people still don’t know what asexuality is or have a mistaken conception of it, her explanations are very much needed. It is beyond question that Loveless is an essential #OwnVoices piece of writing for the further visibility of the LGBTQ+ community.
Apart from the exploration of asexuality, Loveless also deals with some of the main topics relating to going to university. The novel especially ponders on why certain behaviours are sometimes mindlessly accepted by society, such as drinking/clubbing culture or the pressure put into getting into relationships too soon or deeming someone as weird for never having kissed anyone or having had sex before university. The pressure of finding a partner makes everyone feel insecure, no matter their sexual orientation.
Finally, she also explores other ways to live your sexuality, no matter your orientation of gender identity, like casual sex, long-term relationship, and blooming affairs. This shows that there is not a single experience in the field of love and sex. We all have been conditioned that the right way to love is to fall in love, get married and be happy. Even if that is true for some, for others that is far from reality. First and foremost, the message at the core of Loveless is to appreciate the love we can offer our friends and the love they will offer us back, because it can be as strong —if not stronger— than romantic love. No matter the ups and downs, friends are a force to be reckoned with in all of our lives.
Loveless is a beautiful tale of self-discovery and self-acceptance, as well as a celebration of friendships. Alice Oseman offers one of her best works to date, unafraid to show the intricacies of human connection and the importance of valuing those around us to create a community of support and love in a world that always seems to go against us. We could write an entire essay about the many positive things Loveless adds to YA, but we will leave it to you to discover Georgia, her lovely friends and their beautiful relationships. And rest assured that they are all far from loveless.
Loveless is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of
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Synopsis | Goodreads
The fourth novel from the phenomenally talented Alice Oseman – one of the most authentic and talked-about voices in contemporary YA.
It was all sinking in. I’d never had a crush on anyone. No boys, no girls, not a single person I had ever met. What did that mean?
Georgia has never been in love, never kissed anyone, never even had a crush – but as a fanfic-obsessed romantic she’s sure she’ll find her person one day.
As she starts university with her best friends, Pip and Jason, in a whole new town far from home, Georgia’s ready to find romance, and with her outgoing roommate on her side and a place in the Shakespeare Society, her ‘teenage dream’ is in sight.
But when her romance plan wreaks havoc amongst her friends, Georgia ends up in her own comedy of errors, and she starts to question why love seems so easy for other people but not for her. With new terms thrown at her – asexual, aromantic – Georgia is more uncertain about her feelings than ever.
Is she destined to remain loveless? Or has she been looking for the wrong thing all along?
This wise, warm and witty story of identity and self-acceptance sees Alice Oseman on towering form as Georgia and her friends discover that true love isn’t limited to romance.
