#sfhskhj sorry about that

[radiosilenced]

i am thinking about the emphasis on platonic relationships and love in alice oseman's novels.

you have solitaire, where the tagline is literally "this is not a love story."

there's radio silence, with the incredible relationship between frances and aled PLUS frances slowly opening her social circle to others such as raine and daniel. honestly i could talk about frances' journey there for hours. maybe i will sometime.

then you have i was born for this with angel and juliet meeting after being internet friends, plus the playing around with the difference between being a fan of a group and only seeing their personas that they share with the would vs knowing them personally.

and, of course, there's loveless, which doesn't only detail georgia's journey with discovering that she's aro-ace, but also places so much emphasis on the platonic relationships in her life. i haven't stopped thinking about the conversation that she had with rooney asking georgia to be her special person which i just reread and it made me cry. and the whole "your song" grand gesture where georgia asked pip to be her college wife and just pip, georgia, and jason's friendship in general.

even heartstopper! which is probably the only book in the osemanverse that is actually considered to be a love story in the romantic form of the word. the webcomic is about nick and charlie's relationship, but it's even more than that with the paris squad — which is the reason why volume three is my favorite so far. they were all there for nick when charlie wasn't doing well and the whole gang have such a great dynamic. even with minicomics, we see that they never lose touch into adulthood! they still have group chats where they talk about dogs and charlie's new haircut and everything. in a recent virtual panel with adiba jaigirdar and alice, somebody asked a question about friendships in high school and their books. one of them (i can't remember who) mentioned that friendships in high school are often friendships of convenience, but they still matter then. and we see that with heartstopper, they all still keep in touch, which is really reassuring to see as someone who is about to leave their hometown for college.

anyway! i kind of lost the thread, but my point is, platonic relationships in alice's books!