Book Review: Loveless by Alice Oseman

‘Loveless’ by Alice Oseman was released in 2020. It is her sixth novel, and follows eighteen-year-old Georgia Warr during her first year at the University of Durham to study English Literature.

Georgia considers herself a hopeless romantic, a lover of fanfiction and romantic comedies, but she believes she’s a late bloomer, because at eighteen, she still hasn’t had her first kiss, despite making attempts to remedy this at her Year Thirteen prom, where she makes an attempt to kiss her crush of seven years, Tommy at the afterparty. In a panic, she rejects his advance, and stews over why she didn’t feel giddy that her crush was sharing her feelings.

At university, her horizons are broadened. In a city that is filled with new experiences to be had, Georgia, and her new roommate, Rooney Bach, embark on their journey together. With her school friends, Pip and Jason by her side, Georgia has nothing to fear – surely! Except for the hypersexual culture of Freshers. And, when Georgia’s charismatic roommate, Rooney finds out the society she wanted to join had been disbanded, Rooney declares she wants to put on a play to draw in prospective Shakespeare connoisseurs, signing Georgia, Pip and Jason up to be the first four members they needed to be considered, while they looked for a fifth.

Challenge accepted. The newly formed Shakespeare Society have many hurdles to overcome, in both a physical and professional capacity and spectating while they make standard mistakes eighteen year olds make at university, like being locked out of their flats, or getting so drunk you can’t function, drunk dialling old friends and arguing with the people you can’t live without.

But what I loved, was how Oseman merges this with traditional romcom melodrama, with the concepts of college spouses and dramatic proposals a part of the culture at Durham, introduced from the get go, seeing these extravagant events happen added the sappy fun that Georgia as a romance reader absolutely adored.

The story is something that many young queer people need. I’m glad it’s in the world. Oseman illustrates the struggles of an aromantic asexual coming into her own very well. Although Georgia’s experiences don’t speak for everyone, with so few pop culture resources available for young aces to latch onto, being able to get into Georgia’s head, and see her meet a broader spectrum of the asexual community throughout the story was so rewarding.

I loved the friendships that Georgia makes throughout her time at university, specifically with her sex-positive roommate, Rooney. Forced together due to both declaring they liked Shakespeare, the girls end up cementing one of the most powerful bonds you can forge at university, through supporting each other through ups and downs, loneliness, homesickness, heartbreak, hangovers and deadlines. I really loved how Rooney and Georgia make mistakes and grow from them, apologising and holding themselves accountable for stupid decisions.

She addressed many of the questions asexuals encounter, and articulated the spectrum of asexuality well, by introducing characters like Sunil, Jess, and Ellis throughout the story, who have different relationships with their identity.

Although not everything Georgia does and every decision she makes is necessarily the path all aces go down, being inside her head, and seeing things through her eyes, you can understand how her actions hurt her friends, but also, how deeply she didn’t mean to hurt them. Although, I must say, that I would have loved this book to be longer so the ending didn’t necessarily feel like a rush into happily ever afters, I’m not sure what other experiences I’d necessarily want Oseman to add to the book. However, I truly felt that by adding the last chapter where everyone, including third year Sunil choose to live together in a shared house next year, with Sunil having decided on staying just felt a bit too ‘tie it all up in a bow and say the end’ for me, because had Sunil not come back in September, the Shakespeare Society would encounter the same issues that they did during the first year, not having enough members to proceed. It just felt a bit convenient to me, but it didn’t take away from the story!

This book is so valuable, and definietly needed as a resource for young queer people, to get inside an aromantic asexual’s head and learn to understand that they aren’t broken – nobody is broken. It is the book that would have made things so much easier for my generation that grew up as representation of queer people in the media blossomed from comedic relief and stereotypes to media that demonstrates that queer people are people. Sunil’s character in particular, truly encapsulates what that means. I loved this book, it took me on a huge journey of self-discovery and I would recommend it in a heartbeat.