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A review by fiekesfiction
Loveless by Alice Oseman
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-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
5.0
After my reread:
I have a lot to say about this book. Like A LOT, a lot.
So prepare for a long review.
I have wanted to reread this book ever since I read it. Part of me wanted to reread this book all day every day. But it took a while for me to actually do it.
The main reason is this: I normally read (fiction) books for one of two reasons.
1- As escapism. Just a fun story about people doing things to distract me from reality, or
2- To learn something about other people. To understand a different perspective/ experience on life.
(Or maybe a third reason, because school forced me to.)
However, Loveless wasn’t that for me. Instead, loveless was the opposite. It was forcing me to look at my own life rather than escape from it, and learn about my own feelings rather than someone else’s.
This book was the first time I realized, REALLY realised, how important representation is. Because I always said that and always thought it, but never have I felt it so deeply. Yes, I did think people should be able to read books and recognize themselves in them. But when I read this I just understood how much of an impact it can have. How understood and less alone it really made me feel. How nice it is to know that other people read this book as well and either relate to it or learn from it. This book was the first time I just cried almost the whole time while reading it, because I realized I was a lot like Georga. In ways I didn’t dare admit to myself. (And let's not get into THAT too much here. Because that is not a story I am ready to tell you.)
So rereading this was both amazing, and terrifying. It was exhausting and a relief. I was still crying almost every page. For that reason, I had to read only a few pages per day. And after those few pages I would just think about the book for hours and hours.
This reread was very different from my first read. I noticed different things (ironically) and liked it even more.
The first time I read loveless, I mostly noticed (and got scared of) how much I loved Georgia. Georgia is the main character of this book. She loves romance, loves reading fanfiction. Loves the idea of love. But she has never been in love. She has never kissed anyone. And now that she is going to her first year at university (studying English, like a certain someone…) she is determined to change that. Except when it comes to it, she really doesn’t want to. She just wants to want it. This is the story of her realizing that she is aromantic asexual.
And that is really mostly what I remembered after reading it one time. I remembered how overwhelmed I felt (just like Georgia) and how relatable many parts of it were. I remembered the mistakes she’d made. I remembered the explanation of how unfair it felt that the whole world was just obsessed with romance. I remembered the confusion she felt and the sadness. But I didn’t remember much else about the plot and the other characters in this book.
Which is ironic, because I was only seeing Georgia and that is exactly what happened to the main character herself. She was so focussed on her own confusion and thoughts, that she didn’t notice how much her friends were struggling as well. And when I reread the book I was confused about how much I had forgot about the other characters. How many obvious things I had kind of glossed over, the same way Georgia had.
This IS a story about Georgia finding out who she is and trying to accept that. About how angry it makes her at society for making her feel bad about herself, about how afraid she is of the future, about how hard it was to understand this because no one talks about it and about how important it is to have a place where you are not alone.
But this is also a story about how important friendship is. How many people get hurt because of the importance 'we' put on romance. Yes, Georgia especially because she believed something was wrong with her. So did another aroace character who got hurt even more.
But it also affects other people. We get Jason’s story who felt pressured and bullied to kiss someone. Through Rooney we get to see how she believed romance was THE thing that she needed to have, and it influenced her decision to be in this toxic relationship and lose her best friend.
And all these characters have different problems and dynamics and they all have big problems, but it felt to me like they were being taken seriously. Like every side character got their own lives and problems, but they had each other to make it better. This story is about how much they all needed each other. And all the friends are a bit shitty sometimes. They make stupid mistakes and they hurt each other. But they care so much. Ultimately, this is a love story. And it is the best one I have ever read.
-----------------------------
Original ramblings:
I have moments where I think I don’t like contemporary anymore. But whenever I actually do read them I realise I was wrong. Though sf/f is probably my favourite genre, the fear that these books will be boring is very misplaced. They are instead very real. Very relatable. When I do read contemporary I often get very emotional. As was the case with this one. I think I cried an extreme amount of tears, even at parts that weren’t meant to be sad.
This story is about a girl who struggles with her life as she is trying to figure out who she is. She just wants the type of romance story she loves to read about, however the actual romance part turns out to not be her thing irl.
This is amazing ace/Aro representation.
The story itself was just the right amount of highschool drama and actual emotional struggle.
And I liked the contrast between Rooney as a foil character to Georgia. I liked how Georgia really DID respect Rooney and her choices, she didn't want to slut shame her, but she just did not understand at all. And I liked how they talk about this multiple times and helped each other. This made it clear that Georgia is NOT against sex or thinks no one should do it, she just doesn't want it herself and does not understand why people want it.
It is true that the characters made some really dumb decisions, but to me that just made them seem more real. I loved each and every one of them. At one point I even started caring about the plant.
The audio book is the absolute BEST but I now need to get myself a physical copy.
Thanks to jacks for recommending this to me!
I have a lot to say about this book. Like A LOT, a lot.
So prepare for a long review.
I have wanted to reread this book ever since I read it. Part of me wanted to reread this book all day every day. But it took a while for me to actually do it.
The main reason is this: I normally read (fiction) books for one of two reasons.
1- As escapism. Just a fun story about people doing things to distract me from reality, or
2- To learn something about other people. To understand a different perspective/ experience on life.
(Or maybe a third reason, because school forced me to.)
However, Loveless wasn’t that for me. Instead, loveless was the opposite. It was forcing me to look at my own life rather than escape from it, and learn about my own feelings rather than someone else’s.
This book was the first time I realized, REALLY realised, how important representation is. Because I always said that and always thought it, but never have I felt it so deeply. Yes, I did think people should be able to read books and recognize themselves in them. But when I read this I just understood how much of an impact it can have. How understood and less alone it really made me feel. How nice it is to know that other people read this book as well and either relate to it or learn from it. This book was the first time I just cried almost the whole time while reading it, because I realized I was a lot like Georga. In ways I didn’t dare admit to myself. (And let's not get into THAT too much here. Because that is not a story I am ready to tell you.)
So rereading this was both amazing, and terrifying. It was exhausting and a relief. I was still crying almost every page. For that reason, I had to read only a few pages per day. And after those few pages I would just think about the book for hours and hours.
This reread was very different from my first read. I noticed different things (ironically) and liked it even more.
The first time I read loveless, I mostly noticed (and got scared of) how much I loved Georgia. Georgia is the main character of this book. She loves romance, loves reading fanfiction. Loves the idea of love. But she has never been in love. She has never kissed anyone. And now that she is going to her first year at university (studying English, like a certain someone…) she is determined to change that. Except when it comes to it, she really doesn’t want to. She just wants to want it. This is the story of her realizing that she is aromantic asexual.
And that is really mostly what I remembered after reading it one time. I remembered how overwhelmed I felt (just like Georgia) and how relatable many parts of it were. I remembered the mistakes she’d made. I remembered the explanation of how unfair it felt that the whole world was just obsessed with romance. I remembered the confusion she felt and the sadness. But I didn’t remember much else about the plot and the other characters in this book.
Which is ironic, because I was only seeing Georgia and that is exactly what happened to the main character herself. She was so focussed on her own confusion and thoughts, that she didn’t notice how much her friends were struggling as well. And when I reread the book I was confused about how much I had forgot about the other characters. How many obvious things I had kind of glossed over, the same way Georgia had.
This IS a story about Georgia finding out who she is and trying to accept that. About how angry it makes her at society for making her feel bad about herself, about how afraid she is of the future, about how hard it was to understand this because no one talks about it and about how important it is to have a place where you are not alone.
But this is also a story about how important friendship is. How many people get hurt because of the importance 'we' put on romance. Yes, Georgia especially because she believed something was wrong with her. So did another aroace character who got hurt even more.
But it also affects other people. We get Jason’s story who felt pressured and bullied to kiss someone. Through Rooney we get to see how she believed romance was THE thing that she needed to have, and it influenced her decision to be in this toxic relationship and lose her best friend.
And all these characters have different problems and dynamics and they all have big problems, but it felt to me like they were being taken seriously. Like every side character got their own lives and problems, but they had each other to make it better. This story is about how much they all needed each other. And all the friends are a bit shitty sometimes. They make stupid mistakes and they hurt each other. But they care so much. Ultimately, this is a love story. And it is the best one I have ever read.
-----------------------------
Original ramblings:
I have moments where I think I don’t like contemporary anymore. But whenever I actually do read them I realise I was wrong. Though sf/f is probably my favourite genre, the fear that these books will be boring is very misplaced. They are instead very real. Very relatable. When I do read contemporary I often get very emotional. As was the case with this one. I think I cried an extreme amount of tears, even at parts that weren’t meant to be sad.
This story is about a girl who struggles with her life as she is trying to figure out who she is. She just wants the type of romance story she loves to read about, however the actual romance part turns out to not be her thing irl.
This is amazing ace/Aro representation.
The story itself was just the right amount of highschool drama and actual emotional struggle.
And I liked the contrast between Rooney as a foil character to Georgia. I liked how Georgia really DID respect Rooney and her choices, she didn't want to slut shame her, but she just did not understand at all. And I liked how they talk about this multiple times and helped each other. This made it clear that Georgia is NOT against sex or thinks no one should do it, she just doesn't want it herself and does not understand why people want it.
It is true that the characters made some really dumb decisions, but to me that just made them seem more real. I loved each and every one of them. At one point I even started caring about the plant.
The audio book is the absolute BEST but I now need to get myself a physical copy.
Thanks to jacks for recommending this to me!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Acephobia/Arophobia
Moderate: Toxic relationship
Minor: Bullying and Sexual content
CW: Internalized aphobia / Verbal aphobia/ deliberate aphobic attitudes/ accidentally aphobic attitudes due to ignorance and lack of knowledge about a-spec identities