hardcover, 432 pages
Published Nov. 2, 2021 by Scholastic Press.
Probably the single best aroace representation in any book, maybe any form of media. Has a really great message about love, even if the reader isn't apart of the GSRM. Characters are all very well written and likeable, Sunil was my personal favourite. Absolute classic, will likely reread it frequently.
Content warning Some minor story spoilers here, fair warning.
I spent a long time thing about this review, and I want to get through all the things I loved about Loveless (please don't see what I did there) first.
The importance of a story like this being told, being available for younger adults (and honestly younger people still), cannot possibly be understated. I'm not aro/ace, but I was a teenager, and I did go to college.
As a guidebook it's nearly flawless. By guidebook I don't necessarily mean steps one would take to get through these situations, so much as a guiding light through the difficulties of exploring romance, sexuality, and self at ages where everything is already so overwhelming, but the expectations piled on top of all of us to have a full understanding of ourselves and to conform is just....this book hit on all of that.
Georgia's journey present a tale as old as time journey for a young person, through a very different prism. The expectations we're asked to set for ourselves based on instructions we're receiving from all around us, leading us to decisions that are quite frankly incredibly damaging.
For me the importance of the story was....yes it was Georgia's discovery of self, but for me it was also so much more than that. It was that discovery could look different for each person. We followed Georgia's, but we also had glimpses into her best friend's (Pip and Jason) stories, and even more views into her college roommate's (Rooney) journey of self discovery.
I'm hating how I'm writing this out, but it was that broadening of topic beyond Georgia's own finding of love and peace of mind, to the idea that each journey is different and fine that led me to feel a little....disappointed at the one aspect of this book I have negative things to say about.
The looming specter of cishet relationships, and their toxicity, never seemed to resolve in the same ways all the other relationships did. Let me preface this last part with saying I absolutely do not think that it was the author's job to do this, just my own view of the story itself.
A lot reviews I saw said similar things "I'm not aro/ace, but" or "I have a friend who is aromantic and I think that helped" and that highlighted for me why the cishet relationship presentation bothered me so much. I believe this is an important book for everyone to read at a younger age, decidedly much younger than myself. It's a great introduction to the pain and struggles unique to those in the LGBTQIA+ community, but more importantly how so much of it is the same as anyone else when just the discovery of self is looked at (as it was so strongly in this book). I'm bisexual, so I know how exhausting it can be to have people ask me incessant questions about it, especially when they point out that I'm married. It shouldn't be the job of the individual to be both an ambassador and a guru/teacher for all others. Here's your book, read about these things, learn.
But the cishet representation is alarming. If you present only toxicity, and hurt, and hateful disgusting relationships, those who are in perfectly happy cishet relationships could feel attacked, and not want to read what is otherwise such a beautiful and amazing story of true love. The angst and antagonism to the "norm" is something I totally get, but there were parts of this book that made me feel like the characters now believed that cishet individuals are loathsome fools, and the LGBTQIA+ community is there to save everyone from it. Having Rooney and Pip get together felt unnecessary (and also gave Rooney a free pass to ignore that while her relationship was toxic, she'd made some horrific choices to get herself to that spot), Jason never progressing past his unrequited love felt empty, Georgia's unnecessary fear of Jason's friends was a good point but coupled with everything else just felt like a piling on of this emphasis that the only comfort to be found is in your own community. A lot of that is reality, but this is a story that has grains of truth of peoples experiences, and exaggerates others to make a perfectly happy ending to a heartwarming story.
With all that said, read this book. I would have given it a perfect score but for that last point. This really is otherwise the perfect story to help people understand we're all trying to live out this journey, and it's okay we're doing it differently. Oh one final point, I think all of us could benefit from being basically forced to look deeply not just at our gender/sexuality, but how that plays into our lives and decision making. Too many I know are following a script loosely simply because they were never challenged externally to find out more about themselves because they did the things people were expecting them to do.
I know that there is some critique about the delivery of aromantik and asexuality, because it focuses on one particular "brand".
I thought that they absolutely pointed out that there are other ways. positive, negative, indifferent... It might be that I saw that and thought it was ok, because I do know quite a bit about the topic and am well aware that there are a gazillion ways to experience these feelings, or the lack thereof. So I can agree that it might be quite one-sided for someone who has no experience.
However, I loved that Georgia is someone who reads smut and enjoys it, which makes the entire idea of being ace so ridiculous. She was not someone who hated the idea per see, and I think that is a very important point and made it in my eyes also less rigid than others complein.
I gave it 5 …
I know that there is some critique about the delivery of aromantik and asexuality, because it focuses on one particular "brand".
I thought that they absolutely pointed out that there are other ways. positive, negative, indifferent... It might be that I saw that and thought it was ok, because I do know quite a bit about the topic and am well aware that there are a gazillion ways to experience these feelings, or the lack thereof. So I can agree that it might be quite one-sided for someone who has no experience.
However, I loved that Georgia is someone who reads smut and enjoys it, which makes the entire idea of being ace so ridiculous. She was not someone who hated the idea per see, and I think that is a very important point and made it in my eyes also less rigid than others complein.
I gave it 5 stars and thought it was a very good and realistic way to show the development. Georgia is only one person with one identity and I think it was a good mix and a good way to show why people don't even think about asexuality. We are all indoctrinated with heteronormativity, so we just assume that we're the same. And as long as you don't fancy someone very obviously not from the opposite gender, there is no reason to question your heterosexuality, especially if you like to read Draco/Harry smut ;)
So yes, I understand the complaints, but still give it a 5.
Okay, I bought this book when I saw it at Target for a few reasons. One, I've read Heartstopper and have been interested in Loveless for a while, since, two, I'm aroace myself. Three, the cover on this edition is super pretty. After reading, I can say that although this book wasn't quite my style, I will definitely be keeping it for the pretty purple cover.
Loveless is an easy read, and I blew through it in maybe two days. The main character, Georgia, goes on a journey of self-discovery from high school graduation through college. She brings her college roommate into her friend group, blows it up, and then pulls it back together. Alice's works feel like they could really be about modern teens or young adults, and I enjoyed the banter and the group dynamics in Loveless. I could also relate to Georgia, even though our aroace experiences …
Okay, I bought this book when I saw it at Target for a few reasons. One, I've read Heartstopper and have been interested in Loveless for a while, since, two, I'm aroace myself. Three, the cover on this edition is super pretty. After reading, I can say that although this book wasn't quite my style, I will definitely be keeping it for the pretty purple cover.
Loveless is an easy read, and I blew through it in maybe two days. The main character, Georgia, goes on a journey of self-discovery from high school graduation through college. She brings her college roommate into her friend group, blows it up, and then pulls it back together. Alice's works feel like they could really be about modern teens or young adults, and I enjoyed the banter and the group dynamics in Loveless. I could also relate to Georgia, even though our aroace experiences are pretty different, and wanting to see her figure herself out really pulled me through the book.
I did get frustrated with Georgia at times, although I always try to give characters room to be flawed since that's obviously an important part of telling many stories. I think I personally like a little more narrative distance from characters, since it's easy for me to get annoyed by characters I'm too "close" too (see this post for clarification: tinyurl.com/yc3jujvj). I guess I also have a low tolerance for drama since I felt like her friends were really freaking out over nothing sometimes. But I must concede that it is a realistic YA book, so it's natural for the conflict to come from social drama.
A lot of the criticisms I've seen leveled at the book claim that it presents Georgia's story as the "only aroace experience", which I disagree with. In fact, the book gets a little infodumpy in its attempt to validate every aroace experience despite the limitation of having only one main character. You can't expect one person's story, fictional or real, to align perfectly with yours just because they use the same label. Other criticisms, which may have a little more meat to them, concern the novel's other "representative" characters, but at the end of the day I think that the standards for the queer characters in this novel are probably all over the place for different people. Some people will like them, and some people won't.
Overall, the relatability aspect wasn't strong enough to completely enchant me, and it was a little YA for my tastes (I've always had an unfortunate inability to appreciate YA), but I did finish it, which is saying a lot for a lapsed reader! And the cover, as I've said, is very pretty. So although it may fall to a book culling in the future, for now it's got a place on my bookshelf.
I received an ARC
TW: internalized acephobia, gatekeeping & prejudice, implied toxic/abusive relationship
4.4
Georgia love romcoms and reading about love, but on the realization that her only crush wasn't a real crush at all, love starts to be something she feels desperate about. All she's ever wanted was a perfect romance- and university is the exact right place to do it. Except... what if it's not about where she is and who's available, but her herself? Armed by her best friends and their own complicated love lives, and a roommate with confidence to spare, Georgia is determined to figure out how to fix herself.
I loved how cute this book was! It's still really rare to see aromantic & asexual representation in media, and even rarer to see it done well instead of making a blanket statement on both, and even rarer to see the representation coming from the …
I received an ARC
TW: internalized acephobia, gatekeeping & prejudice, implied toxic/abusive relationship
4.4
Georgia love romcoms and reading about love, but on the realization that her only crush wasn't a real crush at all, love starts to be something she feels desperate about. All she's ever wanted was a perfect romance- and university is the exact right place to do it. Except... what if it's not about where she is and who's available, but her herself? Armed by her best friends and their own complicated love lives, and a roommate with confidence to spare, Georgia is determined to figure out how to fix herself.
I loved how cute this book was! It's still really rare to see aromantic & asexual representation in media, and even rarer to see it done well instead of making a blanket statement on both, and even rarer to see the representation coming from the main character! This book is a miracle in that we get all three.
Georgia is a sweetheart, and I loved getting to see her journey in exploration and acceptance. As upsetting as it felt at times to hear her invalidate herself, her journey rings true and I think can and will help a lot of people on the ace & aro spectrums.
Even beyond the exploration in identity I liked her as a character. Oseman writes really likeable, vivid characters, and this book is no exception. All the characters are strong and interesting, and they interact so well. The friendships really steal the scene throughout this story, and I love the focus on platonic love so much. The romance that is there (the real one), as well, is very cute and dramatic and well written. All these people seem to go together, different as they are, and are layered enough that you can easily imagine them off page.
There are definitely some moments of frustration with that romance, in the way Pip and Rooney refuse to communicate, but about the same amount that these things seem obligated to have.
The level of drama did tip at one point to feeling overdone and making me like the characters less at different points, but I'm sure other people will find it more interesting than I did.
This book was a joy to read! The short chapters and conversational writing style made it such a fast read, and all the characters are written well enough to genuinely care about them. And, above all else, I'm so glad to finally have a great, informative book with ace & aro rep center stage!
