I'm not normally one for literary fiction, I normally like something a little fantastical to be a part of the books I read, and I don't really read much queer fiction, despite being quite gay myself. But there was something really special about Loveless that made it really hard for me to put down.

One of the biggest appeals of this book was the subject matter, not necessarily a young queer girl going to university and discovering their sexuality, because that's not too uncommon; instead, it's that the book gives representation to asexual and aromantic people. This is a part of the LGBTQ+ community that are often not given a voice, and in some cases are even denied their identity actually existing. My computer has even tried to get me to change aromantic to aromatic.

I know some people who fall into these categories, some of them are people that I love, and it's so good to get to read a book that gives this community a chance to take centre stage.

The story follows Georgia as she and two of her best friends, Pip and Jason, move to Durham University. Georgia has never kissed anyone, and is plagued by this. She thinks that there must be something wrong with her, and really thinks that she should be in a relationship or in love because shes a big fan of love stories, but nothing ever feels right to her. She tries to kiss her 'crush' on prom night and the result is pretty spectacularly disastrous to say the least.

With the help of her friends and her outgoing room mate Rooney, Georgia tries to explore her sexuality and discover if dating and relationships are really right for her. As these are teenagers, there is of course a lot of drama involved, and things don't always go well for the group, leading to misunderstandings, arguments, and break ups.

Despite this, Georgia makes a new friend, the head of the Uni's Pride Society, and learns more about asexuality, and more begins to make sense to her about her life. Now Georgia has to learn to come to terms with her sexuality and her worries about her future, whilst repairing her friendship circle.

Loveless is full of drama and teen angst yes, but it's way more than that. It's about love. And whilst there is a sapphic enemies-to-lovers romance in here, it's not about romantic love. The book makes a big, clear point that platonic love is a real, important thing. The love that you have for your friends is real, and it matters. It might not be the same as love for family, or love for a romantic partner, but it can be just as strong and just as meaningful. This is an important thing for aro-ace people, and it's a big part of Georgia's journey in the book, but it's something that applies to everyone.

The book shows the reader through Georgia how important love is in all of its forms, and that you should never feel ashamed or weird for saying that you love your friends. Friendships can be so powerful and important, and you should be able to tell your friends that you love them dearly. Loveless is about learning to discover your true self, but also learning to not be afraid of your future or trying to force your life to fit the shape that society says it should. It doesn't matter if your life and your love isn't what society demands it should be, what the boring straight cis people would call 'normal'. We're all amazing and wonderful, our lives all matter, and everyone deserves to finds happiness in whatever form that takes.

I'd never read Alie Oseman's work before, but am definitely planning to read more of her stuff now. I'm going to be recommending this book to so many of my friends, especially the queer ones. And I hope that this kind of story becomes more common, that aro-ace people aren't a rarity in fiction, and that their stories aren't about having to 'fit in' or being 'fixed', but them just getting to live their own lives. This is amazing queer content, and I absolutely adored every minute of reading it.

I loved this book so much. It is representative, diverse and challenges stereotypes, even within the LGBT+ community. Each character had their own storyline within the book as a whole and I feel like it was a lovely story that discussed problematic themes throughout as each character worked on their personal growth. It is set during the first year of University and is a brilliant English novel.

It is a good intro to asexual/aromantic (ace/aro) sexual identity which is particularly refreshing to read as there is not a lot of representation in the media - the characters realise how insensitive it is to say "maybe you just haven't met the right person yet" and how it invalidates their experience.

Overall, well recommended!

This book was a breath of fresh air! I love Heartstopper but this is the first Alice Oseman novel I've read. I don't read much YA anymore but this just sounded wonderful, and there was has been so much hype about it.

This book looks at female friendships and relationships, university life and best of all, the main character is aro-ace. I loved learning about this alongside the main character and seeing how how she was supported by a brilliant group of friends. It felt so real and raw. All of the characters were awesome in their own way as well. I can't think of many books where I genuinely loved all of the main characters!

This is a really excellent and absorbing coming=of-age book and I highly recommend it.

This book was everything!!! I love Alice Oseman and this book solidifies the love that I have for her and her writing. Loveless is now my favourite Alice Oseman book but is also now in my list of favourite books of all-time.

I wish I had read this book before I started university, because everything Georgia felt was exactly how I felt during my first year at university and I wish I had had this book to make me see that the things I felt were completely normal.

I loved being in Georgia’s head and seeing her discover who she was throughout the book. Georgia discovering that she was aromantic asexual and her seeing that that was a normal thing, and that she was not ‘weird’ for not wanting to be in a romantic or sexual relationship with someone had me feeling very emotional. Honestly, the whole book had me laughing and crying with Georgia, Rooney, Pip, Jason and Sunil and I just wanted to be part of their friendship group.

I absolutely loved Rooney’s character. Rooney and Georgia’s friendship was so beautiful to read about and I loved how they were so different and yet so similar to each other. I loved that this book did have a love story and that was the love that grew between Georgia and Rooney, as it showed that you don’t need romantic love to fall in love with someone else.

‘Loveless’ is a book that will stay with me for a long time and is a book that I recommend that everyone should read.

Georgia has never been in love, never had a crush on anyone - so when she heads off to university she is determined that her (love) life will change. After all, she's been reading romantic fan fiction for years, there's someone out there for everyone, right?

With best friends from home by her side, even though not in the same halls of residence or college, Georgia prepares to take on the challenges of uni and the acting world. Her new roommate eagerly takes on the challenge of helping Georgia - but as her romantic plans cause havoc among her friends, she starts to evaluate exactly what she wants from life.

This is a witty and considered coming of age novel about identity, friendships and family.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review - thanks so so much to Netgalley for sending this to me! Loveless was one of my most anticipated releases of the year and I’m so unbelievably grateful to have had the chance to review it.

Check out my video review on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zmhx-dvwnpY

Loveless follows university fresher Georgia, who’s always felt like the odd one out among her friends. She’s never been kissed or had a romantic relationship, and going to uni seems like the perfect time to try and change that - but as Georgia starts her first forays into romance, she discovers that romantic love isn’t as appealing as movies, books and fanfiction has made it seem… and that maybe she doesn’t want those things at all.

As with most of Alice Oseman’s novels, Loveless is more character driven than plot-driven. We follow Georgia and her friends - some old, some new - as they immerse themselves in university life and begin growing into themselves, discovering new interests and figuring out who they are. I adored the way this book depicts university life, particularly its willingness to embrace the messy side of being a student, tackling issues like the drinking culture, mental health and inevitable drama that so many people face. The first year at uni is such a complex time in many young people’s lives and I thought this book handled it beautifully, unafraid to engage with the idea that not everyone’s cut out for constant parties, and that everyone finds their niche. It was raw and honest, but also showed off the fun side of things - and I feel like that’s so great. A lot of UKYA, in my experience, tends to skew young - so having a book that talks about the realities of university in a well-rounded and realistic way strikes me as something that’ll be so valuable for teens to read.

My favourite thing about this book was its centralisation of platonic connections. At its core, it’s very much a love letter to Georgia’s friendships, complete with a huge public display of love towards the end that reminded me of the grand gesture you’d usually see in a romance. It was soft, vulnerable and beautiful, and I adored the way that the complexities of the relationships were highlighted and explored. I was so touched that I started crying at 3am while reading it. I genuinely don’t know how to explain how moved I was by Georgia’s intense, passionate adoration for her friends. They truly are the most important people in her life and she doesn’t shy away from making that clear and telling them how much they matter. It was absolutely wonderful to see, and the bonds between everyone in this book were so tangible and perfect even under times of stress. I think the connection between Georgia and Rooney in particular might be one of my top 10 bookish friendships of all time. They’re iconic - no one is doing it like them.

I feel it’s important to mention that this book is a coming out novel centred around an aro/ace teen, and as an allosexual/alloromantic reviewer I can’t speak for the representation itself, which I understand to have received mixed reviews from aro/ace readers. I can only say how pleased I am to see this sexuality represented, especially by such a beloved author, and that I hope it makes its way into the hands of someone who needs it. Georgia’s journey of self-discovery isn’t devoid of difficulty, and she often experiences self-doubt and struggles to accept herself - but I liked the humanity of her struggles, and I appreciated reading about a character who doesn’t have everything totally figured out by the end, because it’s a lot more common than people think - I know plenty of people who are still reevaluating themselves, their sexuality and their feelings about it way into adulthood.

My only real sticking point with this story ties into its status as a ‘coming out’ book. There’s a lot of focus on Georgia educating herself about the LGBT community, as she meets characters with different gender identities, sexualities and labels. Again, this is great - even a fleeting mention of an underrepresented sexuality can be awesomely helpful for readers, even if it just leads them to Google an identity they’ve never heard of and educate themselves further. My issues was that it did sometimes feel a bit inorganic, like the characters were reading out a list of identities from a dictionary. It was kind of clunky at times and felt a bit out of place, slowing down conversations and pacing. However I am aware that I’m coming at this book from the perspective of an older, adult person who’s been involved in the queer community for years and is very familiar with these definitions, so my perspective on that may be different for younger community members who are encountering certain identities for the first time and have never previously had the words to describe themselves or had the opportunity to learn about these identities before

Overall, I found Loveless to be a beautiful, powerful and highly emotional read. It had me totally hooked, staying up till 3am and racing through the story, sobbing like a baby because I was so connected to the characters and so proud of where they ended up. Alice Oseman has reasserted her status as a god-tier author for me, and I continue to be awestruck by how amazing her books are.

***I was given a copy of this by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review***

Georgia isn't really sure how she feels about love. It's the central plot to all the fanfics she reads, it seems to be the central plot to everything, to be honest. She's a massive romance fan, and she thinks she'd like to fall in love. The reality, however, doesn't seem to be quite so enticing. Loveless follows Georgia through the tumultuous time that is the first year of university- finding your feet, finding your people, finding your self.

I know everyone else has already said it: but this is truly a masterpiece of a book. It absolutely blew me away, quite honestly. The nuance and depth of this novel is truly remarkable, I was amazed at how well-developed each of the characters were, and how all the different themes were so fantastically explored.

Loveless is a breath of fresh air, in a lot of ways. It's the first YA book (at least to my knowledge) that has an openly ace-aro character. In terms of representation, that's pretty massive! But more importantly, it doesn't half-arse the representation. This isn't lazy representation, nor is it rushed. Georgia takes a long time to work out who she is, and how she feels about that, and that's really important to see. We'd like to think that it's all rainbows and glitter, but it isn't always. It can be really tough, and really lonely. Furthermore, it made me think a lot more about things that I, as an alloromantic ((hyperromantic lol)) person have always taken for granted: college marriage, for example! Love songs! This stuff really is impossible to escape hey?! And Georgia never says, hey I want all of this abolished. Georgia loves love. She just also wants room for her.

In terms of being a breath of fresh air, Loveless also portrays something that is often ignored, but very common: that university is actually really bloody difficult! Not even the academic side of it so much, as the suddenly being in a new world, trying to navigate a million different things at once. Georgia doesn't have the best time at uni, at least not to begin with, and that's okay. I am so glad that this book exists, for that narrative alone. As well, it was kind of refreshing to see an honest portrayal of a UK uni. YA tends to be dominated by US uni stories, and as much as I love reading that, it was really cool to see something that captured the particular quirks of UK universities.

As I mentioned previously, this book is wiiiiide- as in, it covers a whole ton of things. It looks at casual sex in a really open way- not instantly dismissing it as a bad thing, but equally exploring how it can be a self-destructive act. Acephobia was really clearly shown, and I LOVED the way that Sunil handled Lloyd- but also I really like that Lloyd was included, because there are, sadly, SO MANY Lloyds out there. We need to be talking about them, and this book did that so well.

Almost all of the characters (I will discuss the one exception in a minute) are really really well developed and explored- they all have their own stuff going on, and each one feels so realistic. It's really easy to kind of reduce this to there being a range of different identities, which of course I loved, but there's so much more to it than that. I really felt like I got to know (almost) every single one of the characters: I hurt for them, I understood them, I felt happy for them.

Mistakes were made, sometimes pretty colossal ones. None of the characters, especially Georgia, were made out to be perfect. They did some rubbishy things, often to each other! But they learnt and they grew. Maybe more importantly, they learnt and grew together, and not overnight. There wasn't instant forgiveness, and that felt really important to me. People were allowed to be hurt and to feel their feelings, just like in real life, and just like in the most genuine and important of friendships.

Okay: my biggest gripe with this book, and the one thing that, unfortunately, does prevent it from being a 5* read for me. is that I think Sunil could have been explored more. I really liked the way that the intersection in his sexuality and ethnicity were discussed- but their gender identity felt really brushed aside. It was mentioned like once, and I think Jess used the pronoun 'they' for them once, but aside from that, the pronoun used was always 'he'. It would have been so so great to have more alternation of pronouns, and I do feel let down that Sunil's gender identity felt completely erased, especially when other characters and their identities were so well explored. And I think it leaves me wondering just how to feel about this book, when it did so so well in sooo many areas, but let me down in an area that's particularly important to me personally.

On the other hand- towards the end of the book, there's a conversation of (if unnamed) queer platonic love, kind of vaguely alluding to relationship anarchy. Georgia fears being forgotten, and another character makes it clear that's not going to happen. And like, wow? I spend so much of my time talking about representation, but somehow I forgot how it felt, to see something that's integral to who you are represented so well. To be reminded that that's okay, that you're not broken. I don't want to take up time and space talking about how this felt to me personally, but- it was massive. And now I want to buy a physical copy, so I can give it to everyone I want to better understand me, and how I feel about love, albeit from a kind of opposite perspective. (And if anyone would like to talk about how this fear feels as a hyperromantic person, and the importance of queer platonic love for the same, I'm down for that. I know I can talk about how it feels to me far better now I've read this book.). Thank you, Alice.

A last point- I feel like this book could attract negative attention for 'do people really talk like that?!'. But oh my god, YES. We do! Having a deep conversation and summing it up with 'mood'? MOOD. Here for that. Love that for us. Legit.

Overall: yeah, this book did let me down, and I still don't know how to reconcile that. I definitely want to posit that clearly here. Buuut, it also did so many things right. Please read it.

This book is incredible. The writing style completely captivated me from the very first page until the last one. I have never read a book where I've felt so seen and understood in ways I never thought I would. I loved every character and how they all came together and interacted and honestly, the way that grief is portrayed throughout blew me away. It was like someone had lifted my exact thoughts and written them down. It's so rare to get a book focusing on the asexuality/aromantic spectrum, nevermind an own voices one, and this book encompasses just how important it is for people to see themselves in media to understand its okay to be themselves. I adore this book so much it is a new favourite always and forever. I could go on forever about how much I loved this.

I received the arc copy of this from. Netgally in exchange for an honest review. Thank you Netgally and Harper Collins for sending this my way.

Loveless is about Georgia in an inner journey to get to know herself while starting university and being away from home feeling homesick and confused about her sexuality, lucky for her, she's not alone which for me was the best part of her self discovery adventure!

Absolutely loved the friendships in this book. It makes me so happy every time I see good true friendships in YA books. I'm tired of seeing of seeing only horrible people, mean hypocritical rhetoric is just a cheap way to introduce drama into any story. Here Alice Oseman show us how is done!

I like that we get more than enough explanation of her new discover sexuality, I think a lot of people seem not to be familiar with those therms particularly as the book is cater to younger audiences. Also there is a list of places to get more information at the end of the book which I always find very helpful.

I think my only complain about the book was that because Georgia was really into romance, fan fic, books, films, I got tired of it, because I find most romantic comedies (some mention in the book The notebook, About time) sexist, and quite toxic mistaken romance with stalking or manipulation. I know that we needed to be put in her shoes so we could understand her misconceptions and how she felt pressure by her own fantasies fuelled by society to have a boyfriend or at least to be kissed.

Note: I can't talk about the representation of Aro/ ace at all as I'm not a member, but I liked seeing people online talking about it and they feel utterly happy that they saw themselves there. The author talk from own experience and there's nothing I can't critique about that.

I adored this book. This is the first novel that I have read by Alice (have read and enjoyed the Heartstopper series) and now intend to catch up on previous titles.
I instantly liked and believed in the characters and wanted to learn about their student life at Durham University. I have learned from this book and have used it to inform myself more about asexuality/aromance.

This was a really sweet and important YA contemporary about asexuality

I've had mixed experiences with Alice Oseman in the past but I really enjoyed this book.

You don't see a lot of contemporary books which focus on asexuality. So it was nice to read this book. Hopefully, asexual and aromantic people will feel seen by this book.

I obviously can't comment on the representation, but I felt like I related to a lot of the general comments and thoughts Georgia had about her sexuality.

I loved the writing. It was a very sweet but also realistic story. It was very real and British. It wasn't cheesy at any point. It was incredibly messy, which is accurate of most teenagers lifes at uni

I wasn't fond of two of the main characters, pip and Ronney. I found them quite annoying and irritating.

The other main issue I had with this book was the audiobook. It was incredibly quiet and slow. I ended up listening to it on 3x speed which is faster than I normally do. I could also hear someone turning pages throughout which was annoying.

However, the actual story was really lovely. It was a very refreshing and honest read. I highly recommend

Alice Oseman just gets it. Effortlessly capturing a teen voice this is just as compulsively readable as her other work. The four main characters will each carve a special place in your heart and as usual with the lead characters you can’t help but root for Georgia as she explores what it means to have never had a kiss. Or sex. Or even a crush.

This is, I feel the most important of her novels as this explores a little mentioned part of the sexual and romantic spectrum. Being aro/ace isn’t often a subject of fiction as it literally isn’t very sexy, and you would assume publishers are afraid the topic won’t sell to a YA audience.

When it’s done as well as this it will. Destined to become a lot of uncertain teens favourite book. Ever.

I loved Loveless. Alice's fantastic ability to create vivid and sympathetic characters really sold it for me; I found myself empathising at times with all of them, but especially Sunil & Georgia. I just wanted to give them all the biggest hug. It's particularly poignant for me as I've had all these insecurities that she explores in my undergrad and even now in my MA course, 5 years later. As a bisexual, I was surprised how often I related to Georgia's feelings and I am so glad that Alice wrote this book - more representation of how special and important friendships are, and banishing the concept that romance is the endgame of life is what I would love to see in more YA books.

Yet again Alice has made a book that moved me, and I feel like this book really played to her strengths as an author; she's great at writing compelling and unique friendship groups that feel vivid and real and diverse. I think the book also had a great setting, that felt like a relatable university town (I've never been to Durham though!) and I loved the medley of Shakespeare plays. I would also love a sequel - maybe following Sunil, as I felt he had a lot of backstory developed that we didn't get a chance to explore. This is definitely one of my favourites, and I can see it being one of my comfort reads.

"Loveless" reminded me of "Fangirl" by Rainbow Rowell only a lot more British and Queer.
There was so much in Georgia's university experience I recognized: the binge drinking culture, the societies, the desperation to make friends, the sensation that you are not enjoying "the best years of your life" in the right way no matter what you do, the pressure to make memories and be partnered up, the exhaustion and insecurity that comes with being young and not yet knowing yourself.
Alice Oseman gave us a group of friends where there is only a cis straight male, no girl ever spoke unflatteringly of her own looks or anyone else's, several asexual characters exist as well as dozen of beautiful queer people that showed us how race can impact your experience, that discrimination can come from any place, that there is more to love than sex or sexual attraction and that friends matter and family members don't deserve blanket excuses for bad behavior.
I'm so happy to have read a YA book about an ace-aro character and more than that I like that a book that is so sex-positive. There were mentions of female masturbation, girls talking openly about sex and their experiences and expectations, characters that survived abusive relationships and were shown to still be reeling with the consequences, people sleeping around and others waiting for a committed relationship, some that liked sex above all and others that placed a lot more value on slowly getting to know someone else and I loved seeing that instead of just teenagers being characterized as horny and boys being called studs at the same time the girls they slept with were called something very different.
On the most technical part of the book, there was also a lot I liked: the episodic nature of the chapters and the chapter titles, the mc's voice, and her monologues that gave us some of the most beautiful quotes in the entire book.
I think this might be someone else's favorite book but it wasn't that for me.
In its entirety I found the book predictable and drawn out. I saw the crush coming a mile away, the sex-positive, kind, roommate that takes you under their wing was a cliché that made me see red, Georgia made me wish she was hit by a car as often as she made me like her and Rooney felt like a mix of the tortured romance hero and disaster lesbian and I only liked one of those things.
That being said, I would watch the hell of this miniseries because I do believe that stories like this matter.
Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins Children's and YA for this DRC.

This gets a well deserved 5 stars. SO engaging, I'd never read an alice Oseman novel before but I loved the writing styles, the characters, the story and all the (realistic and relatable) twists and turns, and (from my view as a gay man) a nuanced portrayal of asexuality. I dont usually cry at books but I unashamedly shed a few tears over this one.

I can finally admit that I see what all the hype is about when it comes to Oseman’s writing and I already plan on reading her other titles that have been on my TBR list for a while now. The writing of this book was so good and I found myself racing through the electronic pages, but this isn’t the only reason why I loved this book. This book does such a fantastic job at educating me in a topic and subject that I didn’t know all that much about, while also giving me an incredible story to captivate me at the same time.

The struggle to identify who you are is something that everyone can relate to, but others struggle more than others, especially when it comes to acceptance and having to confront people and yourselves. This book does such a good job in so many ways, at not only bringing to light a sexuality that isn’t talked about much, making it more normalised and bringing more attention to it within today’s society. This book is the perfect example of why I love reading books that are about topics and people that are relatively new to me, as I get to discover and educate myself! I didn’t know much about asexual and aromantic sexuality, but not only did this book do a good job at explaining what those are to me but it also encouraged me to do my own research and educate myself.

3.5/5 (Rounded up to 4)

'I had been so desperate for my idea of true love that I couldn’t even see it when it was right in front of my face.'

This book was very easy to read and the writing flowed very well.

This was my first experience reading a book where the main character is asexual / aromantic and I really enjoyed Georgia's journey of self discovery and acceptance, although Georgia herself could occasionally come across as whiny and selfish.

At its core, this book is a story about friendship and acceptance, and it's extremely cute and fluffy, which I love.

I absolutely adored Georgia's friends and I really liked the message that true love can be found in friendship and doesn't have to be in a romantic partner. I thought this was a very hopeful and positive message.

The book also shows the good and bad ways that people can react when someone comes out to them and tries to explain why certain comments are problematic.

I loved Sunhil's wisdom and his speech at the Pride Society event really stuck with me.

I know this book is about sexual discovery but I felt like it might have been trying to make Georgia as oblivious as possible so that readers who were potentially in the same situation wouldn't feel as bad for not knowing about the terms asexual / aromantic. That's not necessarily a bad thing but as an 18 year old in 2020, I felt that Georgia would have been more aware of the term asexual and as her best friend is a lesbian she would most likely be more aware of the different spectrums within the pride community. She also mentions reading fanfiction where some characters are asexual so it seemed a bit confusing that she didn't seem to be aware of it when Sunhil explained the term.

Again, I think it's trying to show you that certain actions can be problematic and things to try and avoid doing, and obviously it's a journey of self discovery but I really didn't appreciate how she treated Jason, he was a very sweet character and deserved better.
To its credit though, the book does explain in depth why what Georgia does is wrong and she does actually take that on board and learn from it which I found refreshing. Georgia was a bit of a contradiction because in some ways she seemed very wise and old before her time and in other ways she was so naive.

I definitely had to check myself a few times as I was projecting my desire for her to find a love interest in the first half of the book and that's not what this book is about.

Even though it was a bit convenient, I liked that her cousin had also gone through the same thing with her sexuality and that they could give each other advice on the subject and find an ally within the family.

There was also an excessive amount of clothing descriptions but I think that maybe comes from the author being an artist and also writing comics. And to be fair, it gave me very clear and vivid images of the characters and a bit more of an insight into their personalities.

Overall I really enjoyed this book and read it in one sitting. It was very sweet and funny and informative and I think the author has done a lot of research on the subject.

The real strength of this book is the creation of believable and 3-dimensional characters, who you end up feeling like you know and love. There could have been a whole book from any of their POV, but Georgia's is an important one to focus on.
Alice Oseman has always written teenagers incredibly well, making YA readers feel seen, and reminding us older folk what it felt like back then (and also how much doesn't change just because your age does!). She manages to tap into what makes each person unique, as well as all those universal thoughts/feelings that we maybe don't realise we share.
In the case of "Loveless", we're taken on a journey through the inevitable fears of "being different", of never being accepted, and of never finding love. Georgia's self discovery is obviously incredibly important for aro and ace representation, and offers a great insight to help understanding for those who are not aro/ace too. However, the book really works so well because it goes beyond this. Georgia's struggles with her own identity (along with the struggles her friends face along the way too) are personal, but they are not "other" - I'm sure every reader will connect to the worries, the self-doubts, the fluctuating emotions, and the willing yourself to just be "normal".
It's a wonderful book, with many positive messages at its core, but none are treated simplistically. Self-acceptance (never easy or straightforward, decidedly not linear), friendship (takes effort, doesn't always look how you expected), and - of course - the true and varied meanings of "love".
A fantastic read for older teenagers, I don't think I'll have any problems finding readers in our library!!

I did a little bit of research after reading this. The commonly accepted figure for asexuals is one percent of the global population, although most people accept that the actual number is higher. That's about 78 million people. That's somewhere between Thailand and Germany, based on current population numbers. And yet almost no one has heard of it. It's that tiny little A in the middle of the acronym. Part of the problem may be that it's a spectrum, not an absolute, and not very easily explained.

That's the problem for Georgia, anyway. She's never even heard of asexuality, has no idea what it means or even that it's a thing. She just thinks she's wrong. Broken, somehow. Because the world is set up for people to fall in love, and if she can't do that, what's the point of anything?

I'm making this sound very grim, and it's genuinely not! It's funny and life affirming and sweet. I'd love to see this on Netflix or Disney+. Again; 78 million people. That's a heck of a potential audience.

I adored the friendships, both the long lasting ones and the new ones Georgia develops over the year. Those are the kinds of relationships I want to have, and I absolutely agree that they shouldn't be considered so far below romance.

Alice Oseman had a knack for taking a difficult, sensitive subject, and making it easy for anyone to follow without talking down or patronizing. I have no idea how she does it, but I hope she'll keep doing it for a long time. I'll keep reading as long as she's writing.



Please note, in case it is not your bag; there is sex in this book, including a character who has numerous one night stands. There is also some homophobic language and behaviour.

I was drawn to this book because of the potential for a storyline about being asexual. It's not something covered very often, but we certainly need to see variety and diversity in stories. It was a challenge at first to read - as an adult it felt like it was aimed at the younger end of young adult, compared to a lot of young adult fiction which is very readable for adults. That being said, I do think the story settled into itself after a while and became more suited to a book that can be enjoyed by all. I found it a little wordy at times, and feel it maybe could have been tightened up at various points. I found Georgia's character a little frustrating at first, it felt like she had a one track mind and didn't seem to think about much else. That can happen when people are struggling, but in fiction it can feel quite repetitive. I was glad when she settled down and the story started to change. I found the second half of the book far more enjoyable than the first half, and I really liked all of the main characters (which doesn't always happen) - so I'm glad that I did persevere. For anyone who wants to read books with diverse characters, and stories, I feel like this is a great example. Not just representing different sexual orientations, including the less commonly talked about asexual, it also had characters with different heritage (Latinx/Indian). I have been seeking out more diverse stories generally, and this one didn't disappoint on the diversity front.