#loveless book

[h0rr0r5h0w-c1ty]

"i guess i'd always felt that friendship just couldn't compete with what a partner offered, and that i'd never really experience real love until i found romance." loveless, alice oseman

[your-blorbos-are-queer]

georgia warr from the osemanverse (loveless) is aroace (canon)

[greeen-bean]

Is this something?

(Aled is down below because he sint asexual but demisexual so its a lil different)

[nine-frogs-in-a-trenchcoat]

what i would assume about you based on your favourite osemanverse book

i was born for this

you're a fandom person to your core. you were exposed to fandom at a young age and it has fundamentally changed something about you. you're only now starting to untangle that. maybe you're still in fandom, maybe you're not, but it will always be a part of you. either way you have a tendency to obsess over things. you probably have hyperfixations and/or special interests. you will talk about the things you love all day any day to anyone who will listen. you're definitely mentally ill and probably not dealing with it well. you have some unhealthy coping mechanisms you're still working on and that's ok. you have a lot to say on the topic of parasocial relationships. i have a feeling you might be bisexual. you love lister bird a little too much. you wish the ark was real and you have a playlist of how you imagine their music would sound like. you think about the iwbft sequel at least three times a day

loveless

you don't need to tell me you're on the aromantic and/or asexual spectrum, i know. you either already knew that coming into it but it still made you cry because you had never seen these experiences described on page, or you had no idea and this book made you cry bc it was a little too relatable and it gave you a full-on identity crisis. either way, it made you realise something about yourself and validated experiences you never see talked about in media and therefore it will always be important to you. you probably relate to georgia on several levels. your friends are so important to you and you often worry if you'll ever be as important to them as they are to you. you want nothing more than for someone to tell you how much they value you and always want to be there for you. you've definitely read fanfiction before and have an ao3 account but are probably too self-conscious to write and post anything of your own

radio silence

you were always the quiet "pleasure to have in class" kid but really you were just anxious. you always had good grades in school. you're naturally good at academics but it also wasn't easy, you had to work for it. that all went down the drain at some point in your teenage years tho and now you're full of academic burnout that you don't know how to get over. you know you don't have to be perfect to have value as a person but you don't actually know it. you're either autistic or have adhd and struggle with executive functioning. if you have more than two things to do in a day, you will cry. you're not good at talking about your feelings so you write it all down where no one can see. you have a creative outlet but you always saw it as something that's just for you. you've always felt a little different and have trouble being your full self around people you don't know well. it's not exactly that you put on a front of being someone else but that you only show people a very watered down version of who you really are. you've either called someone your platonic soulmate before or you've wanted to. you wish you had someone like aled/frances in your life. you probably listen to fiction podcasts and you wish universe city was real

heartstopper

you're very queer and a hopeless romantic. you're a firm believer that there's nothing wrong with seeing life through rose-coloured glasses sometimes. you know how important hope is and you will never give that up. you've been through some shit and you struggle with your mental health but you're determined to heal and find happiness. you felt lonely because of your queerness when you were younger but are now starting to accept yourself and value the community you have found so much. you somehow got yourself a group of friends that belongs in a poster for lgbtq+ representation and you're not sure when that happened but you're so grateful for them. you either own a pride flag or you want one. you yearn to have what nick and charlie have. you love heartstopper because reading it makes you smile and giggle and kick your feet but sometimes you get a bittersweet feeling of longing from it too. you've started wearing converse and/or vans more after becoming a heartstopper fan

solitaire

you love tori spring and michael holden so so much and you will make it everyone's problem. you have one of them as your pfp and immediately hit follow on anyone else with a tori/michael pfp. you have depression and you've struggled a lot with your mental health and still do. this book makes you feel understood when you feel sad and lonely and it gives you comfort so you reread it often. you either feel numb or have anger issues or both. you care about everything much more than you let on, but especially people. you don't easily let people in but the ones that you do you care so deeply about them. you feel like you're always at the outskirts of every group and that no one really gets you, except for one person or two. you probably struggle with social cues. you're autistic and either undiagnosed or late diagnosed. you're likely on the asexual spectrum. you probably listen to sad girl music like mitski or phoebe bridgers or radiohead. you post vent posts to your blog under the tag "it's funny because it's true"

please let me know in the tags how much i got right (or wrong) if you've gotten this far!! and please don't take it too seriously either way, it's just for fun :]

[lauralot89]

Loveless

I'm late on this because the book was published in 2020, but I only heard about it in the last month when I was reading an article about asexuality in fiction but in case anyone is out of the loop like me let me tell you about this glory

Loveless is a YA novel by Alice Oseman, author of Heartstopper and Solitaire. It tells the story of Georgia Warr, freshman at Durham University, and her realization that while she's in love with the idea of romance, the actuality of a romantic/sexual relationship repulses her.

Alice Oseman herself is aroace, which makes perfect sense because throughout the novel I kept asking myself, "How does she know? How does she know?! How did she get these thoughts out of my head?"

for my fellow ace and/or aro people, let me quote some of the lines that just got me straight in the soul:

"I had a theory that a lot of people's "celebrity crushes" were just faked to fit in."

"I was disgusted by the thought of him near me. Wanting things from me. That wasn't normal, was it?"

"Oh, God, this thing is actually real, it's not just in fanfics and movies. And I'm supposed to be doing it too."

"Did I even know what romantic feelings felt like?"

"He was clearly the sort of person who I should like romantically. Who I could like romantically. He looked like a boyfriend. I loved his personality. I'd loved his personality for years. So I could fall in love with him. With a little bit of effort. Definitely."

"I thought I'd understood what all these romantic things would feel like--butterflies and the spark and just knowing when you liked someone. I'd read about these feelings hundreds of times in books and fanfic. I'd watched way more romcoms than was probably normal for an eighteen-year-old. But now I was starting to wonder whether these things were just made up."

"Straight people don't think shit like that."

"Just because I'd never liked anyone didn't mean I never would. Did it?"

"I thought all the movies were exaggerating, but you're all really out there just craving genitals and embarrassment. This has to be some kind of huge joke."

"How could I feel so sad about giving up these things that I did not actually want?"

"I felt like I was grieving. I was grieving this fake life, a fantasy future that I was never going to live."

"How was it fair that everyone got to feel that except me?"

"I never had any crushes when I was a child. Not any real ones, anyway. Sometimes I confused friendships for them, or just thinking a guy was really cool."

"For a long time, I was just dating and having sex because that's what people did. And I wanted to feel like those people."

"You've been so confused about stuff. You really thought we could be together, because you do love me. Not in a romantic way, but just as strongly."

"Oh. This is an asexual thing. I forgot other people are obsessed with having sex."

seriously the entire time I spent with this book I just kept asking "was this written for me specifically?" because that's exactly how it felt.

It is a gorgeous book that explores that bizarre feeling of not knowing the word for what you are, not even knowing that you are something out of the ordinary because we don't define ourselves by what we lack and we just expect that one day, it'll happen and we'll be like everyone else. That struggle of trying to differentiate between loving someone and being in love with them, and trying to make the former into the latter and hurting everything in the process.

It is so good. 10/10, no complaints

also there's an asshole in the university's queer pride group who doesn't think aces belong and everyone hates him so that's fantastic, aphobes fuck off

in conclusion I highly recommend it

[local-neighborhood-cryptid]

Georgia is getting a little too relatable..

[maydayac]

little doodle collage i made :’) obviously ft. @aliceoseman

[undecized]

I'm reading Loveless by Alice Oseman (actually I'm about to finish it) and it honestly broke me. I think it's been years since I cried so hard reading a book. It awoke feelings I didn't even know I had. The fear of all my friends getting partners and moving on. Of ageing lonely.

I just read Rooney's declaration to Georgia and it had me bawling. I had to stop reading because my parents were heading back home and I didn't want them to see me like this.

Never has a piece of media made me feel so seen. I am ace and also honestly questioning whether I'm also aromantic or at least demiromantic, and I empathised so hard with Georgia.

Thank you @aliceoseman for the beautiful work.

[basil-doing-things]

i’m like 80% done with loveless and all i have to say is georgia and rooney AND georgia and pip are serving qpr realness

[galacticjester]

Aro week day seven (the final day!), Georgia Warr from Loveless!

I personally really enjoyed this book, Georgia was very relatable and as an aroace person it was great to see a protagonist who was like me

[dragons-in-spaceee]

me every few months:

[h0rr0r5h0w-c1ty]

[your-blorbos-are-queer]

pip quintana from the osemanverse (loveless) is lesbian (canon)

[greeen-bean]

I do belive that comparing the novels and the comics and the novellas is really just comparing apples and oranges (and pears? Bananas? Idk another 3rd fruit) because they are all compleatly different ways to tell stories

Like comparing the books to each other? Sure, absolutely, everybody has their preferences, they're all very different, rank them, rate them, whatever makes you happy

Comparing the comic volumes? I mean sure, we all have our favourites. I find it harder cuz they're all part of the same one over all story but split into 5/6 parts to practical reasons but it's not impossible

The novellas? Very much different strokes for different folks, and itll be harder to look at either of thrm outside of the context of the other stories theyre expansions of, but sure, compare them to each other

But comparing them all?? Like you're going to compare radio silence to This winter??? And expect it to be a fair fight?? Heartstopper Vol 4 vs Loveless? Nick and Charlie vs Iwbft?? I know they are all in the same universe but it doesn't feel that way!

[goondah]

I finished Loveless by Alice Oseman today and i expected it to be good but i didn't expect for it to be so relatable it's like she pulled the feelings out of my head and onto the page

[aro-absol]

I finally finished reading Loveless by Alice Oseman. Just in time for Pride month! (And apparently also aromantic visibility day) So I thought I'd give you a bit of insight on how I liked it/felt reading it. Spoilers ahead!

I gotta admit, I wasn't too impressed with the writing style, especially at the beginning. The first few pages did seem a lot like accumulating aromantic experiences without much of a plot. Besides, I'm not romance-repulsed and can't really relate to being grossed out by the mere thought of kissing someone. Overall, I couldn't really relate to Geogia in the beginning. That's why I was a little demotivated to keep on reading (but I did anyway).

When Geogia arrived at college, the story became more relatable for me. Beyond the aspec theme I could relate to being in a new environment and being scared of all the changes that are bound to happen. And yes, as an aspec person, a big relatable thing for me was the fear of missing out regarding crushes and dating that Georgia experiences. I personally never felt a strong desire to date but I definitely felt weird and like the odd one out whenever my friends were talking about relationship stuff.

Also, like Georgia, I had someone convince me to try online dating before. I'm not repulsed like Georgia is but I did have a hard time deciding which person was worth chatting with. So I didn't get very far and stopped very quickly.

Then there was the scene when Georgia feels weirdly drawn to the Pride Society on campus but is scared to actually participate in it. And girl me too! And I really liked that with Sunil, she found someone to encourage her to just try it out (and later on to help her feel more comfortable with being aspec). Sunil was one of my favorite characters in the book.

Another thing that felt kinda relatable is Geogia dating Jason after he admits to having a crush on her. I mean I haven't been in that situation yet but if my best friend would confess to me I'd try to date them, even more so before I knew I was aro.

Oh, and the deep platonic bonds in this book were great. Especially between Georgia and Rooney. It made me kinda jealous to be honest. We definitely need more of that in books and overall in media.

These are just my highlights and in no way a real review. Although Loveless and I had a rough start, I can definitely recommend it, especially to other aspecs. It didn't make me feel as seen as I hoped it would but still, a nice read. Over the course of the novel, the characters grew so close to me and I ended up cheering for every single character in whatever struggle they were in. So even of it wasn't too relatable for me personally, it's nice to see a canon aro character finding their place in the world.