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A review by elerireads
Loveless by Alice Oseman
emotional
hopeful
informative
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
3.75
Ok it was YA, it was a bit preachy and there wasn't all that much plot. Georgia goes away to university for the first time and over the course of the year figures out that she's asexual and aromantic, but in the process treats all her friends appallingly and so then has to go and win her friends back because actually friendships are just as important as romantic relationships and yada yada yada. Also they do a Shakespeare play.
It also felt a bit overwritten? For the first few chapters I was thinking wow this has really clearly and sensitively captured the confusion that Georgia is feeling, but as it went on I started think "yeah ok we get it she's asexual and she hasn't figured that out yet" and get a bit fed up with it. The thing is it's a book written from Georgia's perspective about figuring herself out, so obviously the whole thing is just a lot of introspection and going over and over the same thoughts trying to rearrange them so they actually make sense. It just gets a bit tedious from a reader's perspective, especially the part where she was blatantly using Jason and taking advantage of his feelings for her, even after she had acknowledged to herself AND ROONEY that she didn't like him 'like that'.
All of that said, I could see and appreciate what Oseman was trying to do, which was to capture as accurately and in as much detail as possible what it feels like to be a young asexual person, to come to terms with that and then a coming out process. YA is brilliant for its coming of age stories but ordinarily I think there's a background understanding that can be assumed both because of readers' lived experiences and because there's so much other writing about coming of age stories. But that's not really the case here - there's basically no other fiction centering asexual characters, or really any other kind of media. Essentially Oseman had to assume zero background knowledge? What I'm trying to say is, I think the overwriting was probably necessary because this really was the first book of its kind. I also liked that Oseman made sure to incorporate so much fun and joy into Georgia's life, that by the end she was able to make jokes about asexuality and revel in the funny sides of her different perspective on the world, and ultimately of course that she was incredibly loved and had so much love to offer the world, i.e anything but loveless.
It also felt a bit overwritten? For the first few chapters I was thinking wow this has really clearly and sensitively captured the confusion that Georgia is feeling, but as it went on I started think "yeah ok we get it she's asexual and she hasn't figured that out yet" and get a bit fed up with it. The thing is it's a book written from Georgia's perspective about figuring herself out, so obviously the whole thing is just a lot of introspection and going over and over the same thoughts trying to rearrange them so they actually make sense. It just gets a bit tedious from a reader's perspective, especially the part where she was blatantly using Jason and taking advantage of his feelings for her, even after she had acknowledged to herself AND ROONEY that she didn't like him 'like that'.
All of that said, I could see and appreciate what Oseman was trying to do, which was to capture as accurately and in as much detail as possible what it feels like to be a young asexual person, to come to terms with that and then a coming out process. YA is brilliant for its coming of age stories but ordinarily I think there's a background understanding that can be assumed both because of readers' lived experiences and because there's so much other writing about coming of age stories. But that's not really the case here - there's basically no other fiction centering asexual characters, or really any other kind of media. Essentially Oseman had to assume zero background knowledge? What I'm trying to say is, I think the overwriting was probably necessary because this really was the first book of its kind. I also liked that Oseman made sure to incorporate so much fun and joy into Georgia's life, that by the end she was able to make jokes about asexuality and revel in the funny sides of her different perspective on the world, and ultimately of course that she was incredibly loved and had so much love to offer the world, i.e anything but loveless.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Acephobia/Arophobia
Minor: Toxic relationship and Emotional abuse