Well hello there, guys! I finished this book a few days ago and I was pleasantly surprised by it. I am going to separate this post into some categories so that you can skip to which ever part you like. Also I am going to try to keep this spoiler free, but if there are going to be some you will se a spoiler warning before it.
1. Short summary of the book
This book follows our main character, Georgia, in her first year of college at Durham University, where she tries to figure out why she’s never been in love or had a crush on somebody, but because she loves fan-fictions and romance movies, she believes that all her love problems will soon be gone once she starts college. At Durham she goes with her two best friends from back home, Jason and Pip, but Georgia also meets new people while she's there and forms deep connections.
2. Characters
I am going to try to focus on each important person in this book, but mostly on Georgia, and not because she's the main character of this amazing book, but because I relate so much to her, it's insane.
Georgia Warr :
As I previously said she is the main character and what I love about her the most is how three dimensional she seems. By that i mean that she makes a lot of mistakes and isn't portrayed by Alice Osman as being a perfect character. Another thing that I thought was well done, in her case, was her anxiety representation. As someone who has severe anxiety, I just couldn't help myself but relate to Georgia so many times throughout the book.
Felipa Quintana( but if you call her that she might kill you, so we'll just stick to Pip) :
Pip is honestly such a fun character to read about. I genuinely found myself laughing so much while reading her dialogue with Georgia, and not only. She is a queer latina character and in this book it talks about her struggle through high school, but during her time at university she already feels more included in those communities.
Rooney Bach:
I know I said that I related to Georgia a lot, but don't even get me started on Rooney. For my sake(and ego), I will pretend that Alice Osman wrote her based on me. Rooney is this amazing, fun, extroverted person, that loves Shakespeare, but what I enjoyed the most about her is how her character and personality go so much deeper. Without spoiling anything from the book, I will just tell you this, but trust me, her character is so realistic and beautiful and you will not regret waiting for it to show.
Jason Farley-Shaw:
Honestly, I wish we would've gotten more of Jason in this book, because he is the definition of a golden retriever person. He is sweet, caring, funny and shy. Him, Pip and Georgia went to the same high school and have been friends ever since. He also likes theatre, because all three of them did it in school.
3. Writing style
Alice Osman's (she/they) writing was so beautiful and lyrical, something that I didn't expect when picking it up. I only read her graphic novel series (it's called "Heartstopper") which I loved so much, but because it didn't have that much text( mostly dialogue ) I haven't realised how talented they were at writing.
4. Things that I loved about it
I enjoyed so many things about this book, but for your sake(and mine) I will refrain myself from writing too much. Firstly, if we don't get another book about Pip and Rooney, I will go feral. I loved this sapphic enemies-to-lovers subplot so much, because they worked perfectly together. Secondly, I really enjoyed the short chapters. I believe that for a book to have a good pacing it usually needs to have maximum 8 pages per chapter(I will say that i have read books with really long chapters that I really enjoyed). Thirdly, I am really glad that someone wrote a book that has an asexual and aromantic main character, because while I have heard about these sexualities I've never fully understood how they worked(I've heard drastically different things about each of them).
5. Things I didn't enjoy
The only thing that I can say that I didn't really enjoy was the pacing. While I did say that the short chapters were truly a great idea, I still felt that at times the plot was kind of boring. This is a beautiful book about a girl discovering her sexuality, but you can tell that there isn't a lot of action, and that the plot is centered around Georgia's journey of self-discovery. "Loveless" is also a pretty sad book as one can imagine, because Georgia tries to deny her feelings(It was so well done, I thought I was reading an actual person's story) and that also made me kind of reluctant to pick up the book again after stopping.
6. Some great quotes
1. "[...] wondering why picturing myself in any sort of romantic or sexual situation made me feel like I was going to vom and/ or run a mile, while romance in movies felt like the sole purpose of being alive."
2. "I was angry at every single romance movie, every single fanfic, every single stupid OTP that had made me crave finding the perfect romance. It was because all of that, no doubt, that this new identity felt like a loss, when in reality, it should have been a beautiful discovery."
7. Overall opinion
In conclusion, I really liked this book. From the witty and realistic cast of characters to the sadder, but important nonetheless, topics. I will definitely be buying more of her written books, because of how much I enjoyed the writing style. The rating that I am going to give this book is 4.5 out of 5. I recommend "Loveless" to any person that is interested in learning more about asexuality and aromanticism and wants to read an amazingly crafted contemporary young adult book about self-discovery and coming in terms with your sexuality.
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