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Loveless

Loveless

YA ContemporaryYoung Adult
Pages
448
Published
2020
Language
English

Synopsis

Georgia Warr has never had a crush, never kissed anyone, and never even wanted to - though you'd never know it from the amount of romance novels she's read and fanfiction she's written. She's sure her own great love story is just waiting to start. When she leaves for her first year at Durham University with her two best friends, Pip Quintana and Jason Farley-Shaw, she sets herself a goal: find romance, and finally understand what everyone else seems to feel.

Instead, thrown together with her outgoing new flatmate Rooney Bach and Sunil Jha, president of the university's Pride Society, Georgia is forced to confront a question she's been avoiding: that she might not be broken, but aromantic and asexual. Loveless follows Georgia's first term at university as she navigates an awkward almost-romance with Jason, a friendship group pulling in different directions, and the discovery that platonic love and found family can be their own kind of once-in-a-lifetime story.

Loveless is set in the same universe as Alice Oseman's Heartstopper, with brief cameo appearances from its characters, but tells its own standalone story. It won the YA Book Prize in 2021.

Prose complexity
2/10

Vibe

HeartwarmingEmotionalThought-ProvokingHopeful
Coming of AgeFound Family

Genres

YA Contemporary Young Adult

About the author

A
Alice Oseman

Alice Oseman is a British author and illustrator of young adult fiction, born on 16 October 1994 in Chatham, Kent. She published her debut novel, Solitaire, at nineteen, and followed it with the standalone novels Radio Silence, I Was Born for This and Loveless, alongside the novellas Nick and Charlie and This Winter. In September 2016 she began posting Heartstopper, a webcomic about two boys at an English grammar school, which she both writes and illustrates. Hachette Children's Group acquired...

Characters

Georgia WarrProtagonist

An 18-year-old starting her first year at Durham University who has never felt romantic or sexual attraction to anyone, and comes to realise over the course of the book that she is aromantic and asexual.

Rooney BachSupporting

Georgia's confident, extroverted new flatmate at Durham, who is pansexual and prefers casual flings to relationships, and gradually becomes a close friend.

Pip QuintanaSupporting

Georgia's best friend since childhood, a devoted Shakespeare enthusiast who comes to Durham with her and is quietly working up the courage to date a girl in her class.

Sunil JhaSupporting

A nonbinary, asexual student who is president of Durham's Pride Society and the first out asexual person Georgia meets, helping her find the words for what she's feeling.

Jason Farley-ShawSupporting

One of Georgia's two closest friends from home, who joins her at Durham; the two briefly try a romantic situationship before Georgia realises she's aroace, and they settle back into friendship.

All characters in Loveless

Frequently asked questions

  • Is Loveless LGBTQ?

    Loveless is an LGBTQ book. It explores asexuality and aromanticism. The main character's journey of self-discovery involves understanding her identity within the LGBTQ community.

  • Is Loveless related to Heartstopper?

    Loveless is set in the same universe as Heartstopper. Characters from Heartstopper make cameo appearances. However, Loveless tells a standalone story with its own main characters.

  • Is Loveless part of a series?

    No, Loveless is a standalone novel.

  • What themes does Loveless explore?

    Loveless explores themes of asexuality, aromanticism, self-discovery, and the importance of platonic friendships.

  • How does Loveless relate to Alice Oseman's other works?

    Loveless shares the contemporary young adult style and focus on LGBTQ+ themes found in Alice Oseman's other novels, but it is not directly connected to the Heartstopper series.

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