(NO {major} SPOILERS! Spoilers will be indicated!) 

Alice Oseman. She’s coming back to steal my heart after Heartstopper. 

This book was aromantic and asexual representation done perfectly. 

If you were to ask me what book I’d recommend to become a new, coming of age, teen-audience type of movie, I’d choose Loveless by Alice Oseman. Without a doubt. 

You may know Alice Oseman as the creator of Heartstopper, a cute LGBT comic that later adapted into the Netflix series of the same name. In addition, she created this  pull-on-your-heartstrings masterpiece. 

Loveless is a coming of age, coming out story of theater girly, Georgia and her small group of friends who desperately try to save their club, the Shakespearean Society, by putting on a strange play. Accompanied by love triangles and corners and plans to find love (ooh, that’s rough), and incredibly strong opinions on Scooby-Doo, this is definitely one of my Top 10 books!

Best of all, it contains my favorite trope: the main character realizes that platonic friendships can be better than romance! 

This book made me cry in my pillow because I felt so understood. 

This book made me see the world through the eyes of a few of my friends. 

This book made me realize that LOVE DOESN’T HAVE TO BE ROMANTIC. 

WHY ISN’T THERE MORE REPRESENTATION IN BOOKS?!?!?

Although there were moments where I wanted to throw the book across the room out of disgust and/or “why why why,” overall, I feel like my entire perspective on life changed. Skimming the book again, maybe it’s because Oseman didn’t shy away from topics that are normally not explored in your typical young adult novel. 

Maybe it’s because there were so many lines that resonated with me (spoilers in the next paragraph). Maybe it’s because I realized that friendship is something I could romanticize. 

(SPOILER) I think what hit me the hardest was the fact that near the end, Rooney, our main character’s best friend, says something like: although we’re not romantic partners, I love you. We’re friends, and this is something that I will commit to until the end of time because I LOVE YOU. I LOVE THEM SO MUCH I LOVE THIS BOOK SO MUCH I NEVER CRIED HARDER AT TWO IN THE MORNING. Rooney also says something like: I’m scared to lose any of my friendships because THEY ARE MY ROMANTIC PARTNERSHIPS EVEN THOUGH WE NEVER HAVE ROMANCE BECAUSE THEY ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT PARTNERSHIPS I’LL EVER HAVE. 

Loveless was quite possibly the only book to make me sob, make me laugh, make me question my life, and change my perspective… on everything. Everything possible. I love my friends. 

Loveless by Alice Oseman is available to check out from the Mission Viejo Library. It is also available to download for free from Libby.