Reading ‘Loveless’ by Alice Oseman was the best thing that happened to me
It was another day, I was stomped by the lousiness I carried the whole time after opening my eyes to see the first light in the morning or perhaps I should say afternoon. I vaguely came across this book online and got it for the sake of finally reading something. I now look back to my struggling depressive survival days, I have never admitted it to myself but I have always kept trying. No matter in which way it was, either I tried to get up from my bed or just download something thinking it would interest me sooner or later. Back to the beautiful story, I picked it up that day. As usual, I was forcing my brain to focus on the words instead of dealing with the great emptiness felt inside. Then it piqued me, how Georgia searched for that fluttering feeling everyone talked about.
Georgia Warr, a fanfic obsessed romantic who believes she’ll one day find ‘The’ person in her life. She has never been in love, neither kissed someone nor did she ever stumble upon the butterflies in stomach of having a crush. She is off to start her college life with her best friends, Pip (I love Pip <33) and Jason (cute guy!). The story opens with a scene where Georgia is stuck in. Honestly, while reading it my mental reactions were quite same as hers. Three couples kissing in unison?! I would’ve run the fastest I could! Well, so did Georgia.
When the plan of finding true love ends up in the havoc between her friends, she really questions if she is supposed to be loveless forever?
I have tried forcing to myself to develop feelings for someone and trust me it was the worst that could happen. Not only I ended hurting others, I bruised my own heart. That’s when it all came together, when Sunil a senior entered into the plot identifying as asexual. Their character is one of my favourites. These new terms were pretty heavy at first. Aromanticism, asexuality and these are not just labels, but different spectrums themselves!
It hit harder than I thought when an unfair question is raised and Georgia finally thinks to herself “You don’t have to try something to know for sure you don’t like it”.
I totally agree and understand that sexuality is fluid and not everyone will resonate with the same experiences Georgia goes through. What it matters is that there is an attempt of representation. Experiences are subjective, one can go through something same as me, but our feelings, reactions and actions would be so different from each other. There is no wrong or right way to be queer, I realized. As a young reader I discovered more of my sexuality after that.
The bond of platonic love is remarkable among the characters. Rooney was the comedy, one needs in every story. I wished there was a little more insight of Jason’s side, his role was really nice. I absolutely loved Pip’s mom. There is incredible amount of gorgeous diversity in Oseman Novels. And the representation (chef’s kiss). There is lesbian, gay, bisexual, aromantic, asexual, pan, non binary and respect of pronouns! There’s a lot of Shakespeare, theatre, play and literature.
Gradually I researched about everything and it did take me enough time to figure out my identity. I totally respect those who don’t like using labels, it’s their preference! One should be comfortable in their own way. I, on the other hand, finally rested with three labels: Biromantic Demiromantic Asexual.
I am 100% into recommending ‘Loveless’ to anyone who wants to dive deep into a unique story that includes everyone! I’d also like to tell readers to check out the trigger warnings of the novel beforehand. Some additional warnings I’d like to add:
There are Experimentation (consensual and nonconsensual)
References to past bullying
Talk of abusive relationships in the past
I would love to end it with my favourite quote from the book: “I had been so desperate for my idea of true love that I couldn’t even see it when it was right in front of my face”.
See ya next time! :))
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