"Loveless" by Alice Oseman

 Recently for a book club I finally got around to reading Loveless by Alice Oseman. The book has gotten a lot of attention lately, what with it winning the Bookseller's 2021 YA Book Award, and being a great portrayal of asexuality and aromanticism. I really liked the book! I mean I have a lot of thoughts but it's so nice to see a portrayal of this story and it just highlights the need for more of them.

The story follows Georgia, a high schooler about to graduate and head to college with her two best friends. She's never been in a romantic relationship, or even kissed anyone. It's not something that she's been worried about, but she's starting to get concerned that she's behind everyone else and "not normal." When she gets to college she meets her roommate Rooney, a sex positive Shakespeare-obsessed mystery who slowly turns into a friend.

Georgia decides to try and date her friend Jason, figuring if she can love anyone then it's him. It ends with her realizing through her friend, Sunil, that there's such a thing as not being interested in sex and romance and it's called being "aromantic asexual" or aroace for short. Jason is devastated. Meanwhile Rooney has fallen for Pip, Georgia's lesbian best friend, and Pip likes her back but it's complicated since Rooney hasn't realized that she's queer yet. Rooney then tries to help Georgia out by kissing her and Pip sees. She's also devastated. 

Final part of the book mostly centers on Georgia getting her friends back together again. And coming to terms with her identity. She isn't necessarily "proud" yet, but she knows that she'll have the love of her friends for the rest of her life. 

One of the things that this book does really well is with giving an explanation of asexuality and aromanticism that doesn't feel like a lecture. It gets woven in with the characters journeys and understanding of the concepts, taking the reader with them. She also shows the breadth of the community by having characters that aren't white and discussing that intersectionality, as well as characters that are asexual and not aromantic or aromantic and not asexual.

I really liked the book for a more personal reason, which is that it reminded me a lot of my own journey. Not because I'm also asexual but because the book takes place in the UK, the first place I joined a queer org. The discussion of drinking and clubbing culture, Fresher's Week, the structure of the college, even the formal event really brought me back. I realize that this is super specific to just me, but it speaks to how realistically the characters and the setting are portrayed. 

The book doesn't get into queer platonic relationships at all, or how aromantic individuals can still date and form partnerships. I think in some sense this is beyond the scope of the book, a lot of it is simply about how you don't need to follow the trajectory that everyone else does, and it's alright to mourn this, but you have to do what makes you happy. It does feel in some ways that something has been left out though. But I'm not sure, it works on its own without that just fine.

My only issue is at the end of the book Rooney says that she's going to be Georgia's best friend for life and that they can still be each other's special person even if they aren't in a romantic relationship. Which is cute, but I have to be honest, that's something that I think everyone has said to a friend in college and then stopped talking to them. Plus Rooney just got into a romantic relationship which is a good sign for people about to leave their friends behind. Not to mention that the book ended right after that so we didn't see them navigating these relationships or anything like that. It's cute, I get it, but I think it detracted from the intensely realistic depictions in the rest of the novel.

Read Loveless! It's so important to support aroace stories and aroace creators! There's so many good things about this book.