A review by rainbowreadsbooks
Loveless by Alice Oseman

emotional hopeful medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

I don't think that it will come as a surprise to anyone how much I loved this book. Georgia spends a lot of time in this book searching a longing for romantic love. She discovers through her searching that she's aromantic asexual and that the storybook romance route is never going to be for her. And even if this isn't your exact story, I think all of us can take lessons from Georgia's journey. 

First, there is a breaking down of what it means to be "normal". Newsflash, normal is a lie. Everyone's journey is different in a million intricately different ways that media and popular culture has never accurately depicted. The idea that we're all supposed to fall in love with our one true love and live happily every after is literally shoved down our throats before we can even form sentences, thanks Disney. And if you deviate from what society has told is us "normal" for our age, we're made to feel inferior and like something is fundamentally wrong with us. Spoiler alert: there's not.

Second, there's an emphasis in this book on the importance of platonic relationships. Our platonic friendships are never shown to be as important as romantic relationships. We need to stop doing that. Because your love for your friends can be just as intense and wonderful as your romantic relationships and we need to stop sacrificing them for the sake of the cis-heteronormative idea that romantic love is the end-all-be-all of relationships.

So yes, I definitely recommend that EVERYONE read this book! It's fantastic and heartwarming. Also, I have a slightly longer and more personal review on my blog if anyone is interested, the link is in my bio!

✨

Rep:  aroace MC, lesbian, Latinx, non binary, pan

CW: language, sexual content, HP references, depression