Reviews with content warning for Mental illness - Loveless

Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

moodreadererin's review

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

This is the first book by Alice Oseman that I've read . It surprised me . I didn't know what to expect going in and I'm glad I read it . This was a book club book.

Loveless follows Georgia as she and her friends go to university . She always thought she was straight and was going to find love someday . She doesn't know why she can't crush on anyone ,only to realize in her university journey that she's asexual /aromantic . This book follows her journey with her friends , discovering that there are other types of love out there .

I definitely recommend this book. It was insightful and heartwarming .

Content Warnings

theaceofpages's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

"I was really quite lonely, and I wanted to be loved. Was that such a bad thing? To want an intimate connection with another human? I didn’t know."

This was a bit of a tough book to rate. I can tell why some people hate it, but I loved it.

So. First from a technical aspect. I can tell why some people don't like this book. The writing is a little frustrating at times. And the pacing was a little annoying. It started off kind of slow and repetitive. Until she realised she was ace. Then it picked up! I liked the pacing in the middle of the book but then the end felt rushed. And the ending was not the greatest?

I'm happy Georgia found happiness but it felt too neat, but at the same time incomplete? I don't know if that makes any sense.

The representation however? So good! And I think that this is exactly why the book is so popular. That confusion and desperation to feel like you belong. That's you're normal. A lot of her feelings and emotions are definitely high school me. Although I went the opposite route and told myself that I didn't want a relationship because I needed to work on myself as it's not fair for someone to have to deal with the wreck I was. But that the right person would come along eventually and if it happened, it happened. So I never really went through that "oh my goodness I need to find someone" experience. Despite that, I still related to her. And both those experiences simply stem from a lack of representation. I'm glad people can at least find things online and in books now, even if it's still not taught in schools. But yes. Seeing someone who's emotions are the same as mine in a deep level for the first time is great, even if they manifest themselves differently! But I do also think that this is where a lot of the hate comes in from ace readers. One of the biggest complaints about the book I've seen is that it doesn't represent their experiences. I'm pretty sure it was clear that there are multiple experiences through other characters, especially Sunil's explanations! And they are also not aro and Jess is aro but not ace, so there's that. I've also seen that some people are unhappy with how other identities are represented. I mean, I kind of get it, but all the characters are well-developed. We also need to remember that the book focuses on an aroace person - and a lot of us have a lot of confusion about why romantic and sexual love are placed on such a pedestal and are such a focus for some people. That being said, I loved the focus on friendship. It's so often underplayed and represented as lesser, even though it can be just as if not more powerful than romantic love.

I feel like Georgia is the type of person who would actually look up what asexual means so I feel like her discovery was a bit drawn out. I would have loved it if she had found the term, panicked, and then tried to convince herself that nope, she can have those things! She got got on my nerves a bit at times, but it's okay. Her cousin seems cool. I liked that that was a way to show how verbally aggressive parents can be. Although, again, why does no one in this book seem to do any research? I love Sunil! Can we please have more about them? I just resonated so deeply with a lot of what they said. I just want to be their best friend and give them a big hug. I definitely preferred them to Georgia. I'd LOVE a book about them. And how they learned to accept themselves. And about how they help others accept themselves too. It's sad that everyone uses he/him pronouns though (although they are okay with either)

Be aware that this book contains a lot of internalised aphobia (as well as some external aphobia, including from parents and LGBT spaces) and can be rather painful to read at times. I had to take breaks to process at times.

Content Warnings

marena02's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful informative lighthearted reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Content Warnings

alixandwrites's review against another edition

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emotional funny inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

for the characters, i really related to georgia but she was constantly frustrating. sunil was my favourite! “he/they” and then didn’t. use the they though, which was weird. rooney and pip were also really lovely too, together and just as characters. jason felt a little flat but i love him still, he reminds me of a couple people i tried to date before realising i was aroace lol

it’s in first person pov which is a major book turn off and it managed to be both so vague and overly descriptive of things that didn’t need to be described (did we need to know their outfits every time? there were important instances but not all of them). my first alice oseman book instead of her graphic novels and was a little disappointed in the writing but i liked feeling represented, and i liked the resources at the end.

Content Warnings