Loveless

Georgia feels loveless – in the romantic sense, anyway. She’s eighteen, never been in a relationship, or even had a crush on a single person in her whole life. She thinks she's an anomaly, people call her weird, and she feels a little broken. But she still adores romance – weddings, fan fiction, and happily ever afters. She knows she’ll find her person one day … right?

After a disastrous summer, Georgia is now at university, hundreds of miles from home. She is more determined than ever to find love – and her annoying roommate, Rooney, is a bit of a love expert, so perhaps she can help.

But maybe Georgia just doesn’t feel that way about guys. Or girls. Or anyone at all. Maybe that's okay. Maybe she can find happiness without falling in love. And maybe Rooney is a little more loveless than she first appears.

LOVELESS is a journey of identity, self-acceptance, and finding out how many different types of love there really are. And that no one is really loveless after all.

I was so excited to find a new book by Alice Oseman, specially one that’s an Own Voices aromantic asexual coming-out story. Aromanticism and asexuality are still something very new to me, and it felt very special to learn and experience what it is like with the book’s main character, Georgia.

Georgia, like many of us, grew up thinking about what her own love story would be like and how she would one day find that special person to be with her. Society, along with well-meaning friends and family, often make comments that make it sound like every person is guaranteed to fall in love and be with someone. It is a lot of pressure, and one that felt suffocating for Georgia that more she learned about herself.

“In the end, that was the problem with romance. It was so easy to romanticise romance because it was everywhere. It was in music and on TV and in filtered Instagram photos. It was in the air, crisp and alive with fresh possibility. It was in falling leaves, crumbling wooden doorways, scuffed cobblestones and fields of dandelions. It was in the touch of hands, scrawled letters, crumpled sheets and the golden hour. A soft yawn, early morning laughter, shoes lined up together by the door. I could see it all, all the time, all around, but when I got closer, I found nothing was there.”

Loveless, Alice Oseman

I won’t say too much about Georgia’s journey because her struggles, her questions, confusion, search, and self-acceptance could never be summed up with any words I muster. But I felt a lot of what she felt, wondered many of the same things she did, and all I can say is that I’m glad this book exists.

It is a story about love and the different kinds of it. Of romantic love, platonic love, and one that is often overlooked and taken for granted – the love between friends. Oseman captures the beauty of these friendships, whether it be from text conversations or in-person interactions, she was able to show that friendship love could be just as special and sometimes even stronger than romance.

I loved this book and I think many of you will too.