Loveless by Alice Oseman is an own-voices novel about a girl named Georgia coming to terms with her being asexual and aromantic. It tackles issues of friendship, sexuality and transitional periods of life as the characters learn to navigate their first year at University.
Friendship is something I always love to read about. Oseman does an incredible job at stressing the importance of friendship and the difficulties that can come with trying to navigate it, especially in a period of such dramatic change in the characters lives. So many stories, especially contemporary ones, feature romance as a significant plot point in the protagonists story, and while Loveless by no means denounces this (in fact featuring a wonderful romance between two of the main characters) it proves that it isn't necessary for compelling relationships, story or even the happiness of characters in the novel. Oseman encourages us to question why romantic relationships are always seen as so much more important than friendships and presents us with what could almost be considered platonic soulmates. There is so much emotional intimacy and comfort in some of the friendships featured in Loveless, for example Rooney and Georgia, who despite only meeting each other at the start of Uni develop an incredibly deep and beautiful friendship. It is a wonderful thing to see explored in a contemporary novel.
However, it also tackles the difficulties that come with friendship. Friendships need care and attention and it's often hard to maintain relationships with people you used to be friends with when so much is changing around you. Through Loveless, Oseman stresses that despite the effort it might take, it is so worth it. In media, friendship often takes a backseat after romance is introduced, as if they don't need their old friends anymore. However, Loveless presents friendship to be just as fulfilling, complex and important as any other relationship. Having read this book in the middle of a pandemic in which I haven't been able to see my friends, it helped me really appreciate how important they are to me. This has been a time of massive uncertainty and difficulty for everyone and has, for me at least, put a strain on many of my friendships at times. Reading Loveless made me reflect on how friendships will always go through periods of ups and downs but if you truly care, it can make your relationship stronger.
Despite having just talked for two paragraphs about how much I love the importance placed on friendship in the novel, the slow-burn romance between Pip and Rooney was another of my favourite elements to the story, being incredibly well done and satisfying to read. It added an extra dimension to both the characters and the story and although it was clear from the start that they'd probably end up together, there was so much tension in the build up to it actually happening that despite it not being an entirely focal point in the novel, you couldn't help but be invested in their story and hoping for the best for them. They also added humour and fun to the story and, along with the other members of Shakespeare society, helped lighten the mood of the book, helping make it slightly less heavy than many of Osemans' other novels.
Although Loveless is less dark than some of her other novels, there are some heavier topics covered. One of which is the focus on how hard it can be to discover your sexuality. It highlights the fact that people don't always just know what they are and the process of figuring out can be confusing, ongoing and often terrifying. It forces you to change your whole perception of what your life and future could be and Loveless acknowledges and validates this experience. However, rather than dwelling on the fear, it portrays this experience in a more positive light, emphasising the fact that even if you feel alone, there will be people to help you and, ultimately, everything will be ok even if it isn't the future you envisioned for yourself.
Loveless is also an incredibly diverse novel, seeming to feature characters from all different kinds of backgrounds. This gives the novel a chance to briefly touch on on things like how sexuality can be different in all different cultures, for example Pip being a Colombian lesbian and Sunil being Indian, gay and ace. This allows for mentions on how the experience of discovering and coming to terms with sexuality in Loveless is not the only experience of discovering yourself. The diversity also allows for conversations about sex positivity through Rooney due to including differing views from various characters on important topics such as sex. While Georgia is repulsed by the idea, Rooney shows how it can be something so positive and important, as long as you are comfortable with yourself first and not just using it as a coping mechanism like she was originally trying to do.
While I left feeling educated and further understanding what it means to be aro-ace, I did feel that the novel very much focused on one version of the experience of asexuality. Although it was mentioned that sexuality and experiences are very much a spectrum, I felt that it would have been more informative and validating if some other experiences were discussed. Georgia and her cousin, the two main asexual characters both seemingly had very similar experiences and I can see this being a possibly a little disappointing to someone who is aro-ace and sees only one version of the experience being portrayed in the novel. While it is impossible for Oseman to explore everything in one book, especially a book focusing on one main protagonist, maybe a comment on some other experiences would've been helpful.
One of the things I really enjoyed was being able to really see how Alice Oseman has developed and improved her writing over the span of her published books. While I have enjoyed all the novels of hers which I have read, each one seems to be better written and more compelling than the last. It is incredibly satisfying to watch her hone her craft. Having read Loveless makes me so much more excited to see how she grows in the future and themes she chooses to cover.
'Maybe it's not the heteronormative dream that she grew up wishing for, but...knowing who you are and loving yourself is so much better than that, I think.'
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