I’ve been intrigued by Loveless forever. To be honest, I was a bit skeptical from the beginning, because all I knew was it was a book about a girl questioning her aroace identity and the title. But I decided to review it when I saw the new cover. Keep reading this book review for my full thoughts.
Summary
For fans of Love, Simon and I Wish You All the Best, a funny, honest, messy, completely relatable story of a girl who realizes that love can be found in many ways that don’t involve sex or romance.
From the marvelous author of Heartstopper comes an exceptional YA novel about discovering that it’s okay if you don’t have sexual or romantic feelings for anyone . . . since there are plenty of other ways to find love and connection.
This is the funny, honest, messy, completely relatable story of Georgia, who doesn’t understand why she can’t crush and kiss and make out like her friends do. She’s surrounded by the narrative that dating + sex = love. It’s not until she gets to college that she discovers the A range of the LGBTQIA+ spectrum — coming to understand herself as asexual/aromantic. Disrupting the narrative that she’s been told since birth isn’t easy — there are many mistakes along the way to inviting people into a newly found articulation of an always-known part of your identity. But Georgia’s determined to get her life right, with the help of (and despite the major drama of) her friends.
Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle, Audible, B&N, iBooks, Kobo, TBD, Bookshop.org
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
TW: aphobia
Loveless is a book that reflects Georgia’s questioning journey. How society can so deeply program and socialize us into thinking that romantic love is the be all end all. That without it, our lives are hollow. And while I very much don’t believe that – nor is that the message of the book – it can feel like without that grand love story, without those ‘benchmarks’, that our lives derail from what is ‘normal’. Part of that is due to a lack of knowledge and representation about aromanticism and sexuality. And that’s directly confronted in Loveless.
Because we can make a lot of mistakes navigating our feelings and the misconceptions. All the ways that to be questioning can be an incredibly messy, complicated, and flawed journey. One that isn’t necessarily solved with a label for some. At the same time, Georgia’s feelings of being left behind and in a world where the rest of people know the rules of the game, are emotional and valid. I will say that I do wish that the terms sex repulsed was mentioned because it very much seems that Georgia is sex repulsed. Her feelings about being aroace are very much not the monolith of experiences and I do want readers who have never heard of aromanticism and asexuality to know that.
Loveless revolves around Georgia. The mistakes we make and how we keep trying to believe if just something would be different we’d feel that spark. We’d unlock a piece of ourselves that we are pretty sure isn’t behind locked doors. It’s about experiences and ideas we have, but don’t share because we think everyone shares it. And on the flip side, it’s about feeling like we’re missing out. I found pieces of recognition in Georgia’s personal questioning journey. It’s a journey full of bad decisions, mistakes that could destroy friendships, and kind of a mess. But in it I also see the potential to give teens a glimpse into experiences one can’t name.
Just as long as they know that not all aro or ace people have the same feelings or experiences. This is very much a book focused on Georgia, and not describing aro or ace sexuality to everyone when there’s a whole variety and spectrum inside those two sexualities.
Tour Schedule
Tour Schedule:
Week One:
| 2/28/2022 | Nonbinary Knight Reads | Review/IG Post/TikTok Post |
| 2/28/2022 | BookHounds YA | Excerpt |
| 2/28/2022 | Rajiv’s Reviews | Review/IG Post |
| 3/1/2022 | @badlandsbooks_ | Review |
| 3/1/2022 | Nerdophiles | Review |
| 3/1/2022 | @booksaremagictoo | Review/IG Post/TikTok Post |
| 3/1/2022 | Kait Plus Books | Excerpt |
| 3/2/2022 | Dana’s Book Garden | Review |
| 3/2/2022 | Reading Wordsmith | Review/IG Post |
| 3/2/2022 | @thebookishfoxwitch | Review |
| 3/3/2022 | popthebutterfly | Review/IG Post/TikTok Post |
| 3/3/2022 | Emelie’s Books | Review |
| 3/3/2022 | patrickfromperks | TikTok Review or Spotlight |
| 3/4/2022 | @emmreadsbooks | Review/IG Post |
| 3/4/2022 | onemused | Review/IG Post |
| 3/4/2022 | A Bookish Dream | Review/IG Post |
Week Two:
| 3/7/2022 | Midnightbooklover | Review |
| 3/7/2022 | Eli to the nth | Review |
| 3/7/2022 | The Bookwyrm’s Den | Review |
| 3/8/2022 | YABooksCentral | Excerpt |
| 3/8/2022 | Utopia State of Mind | Review/IG Post |
| 3/8/2022 | Two Points of Interest | Review |
| 3/9/2022 | Not In Jersey | Review/IG Post |
| 3/9/2022 | More Books Please blog | Review/IG Post |
| 3/9/2022 | @drewsim12 | Review/IG Post/TikTok Post |
| 3/10/2022 | Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers | Review/IG Post |
| 3/10/2022 | Celia’s Reads-blog | Review/IG Post |
| 3/10/2022 | @coffeesipsandreads | Review/IG Post/TikTok Post |
| 3/11/2022 | Zainey Laney in all 3 | Review/IG Post/TikTok Post |
| 3/11/2022 | My Fictional Oasis | Review |
Giveaway
Giveaway Details:
3 winners will receive a finished copy of LOVELESS, US Only.
a Rafflecopter giveawayAbout the Author
Alice Oseman was born in 1994 in Kent, England. She graduated from Durham University and is the author of YA contemporaries Solitaire, Radio Silence, and I Was Born for This. Visit Alice online at aliceoseman.com or on Twitter @AliceOseman.
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | TikTok | Goodreads | Amazon | BookBub
This is one I’m thinking of getting for my school library. Your review makes me think it will be a good choice as well. Thanks for sharing!