Loveless

At first I was really a little unsure about this book when I started it but tbh it grew on me. Theoretically I know this is a YA coming-of-age story set in modern England, so theoretically I should have been prepared for the very very teenage voice of the protagonist, but I think I still wasn't prepared enough for it. It made me cringe so much in the first few chapters. As the book went on and as we see our protagonist Georgia's thoughts and reactions to more experiences, the book definitely began growing on me and I even found myself relating a bit to Georgia. It wouldn't be fair for me to discount this book for being exactly what it's meant to be - a coming-of-age YA novel from the perspective of a teenager and written for teenagers and young adults - so in that respect i'd say it's doing a pretty good job in sketching out the struggles and peer pressures that someone in Georgia's place may face, especially as someone who is pretty much clueless about what “asexual” and “aromantic” even means.

I liked that this book focused so much on the importance and beauty of friendships too, something that I think a lot of people, and definitely a lot of younger people, are wont to forget. I like that the book completely rejected the idea that friendships are in any way less important than romantic or sexual relationships, and that Georgia grows into realizing this through the course of the novel.

I started this book for Pride Month. I went into this one just curious about how a coming-of-age experience might read like for an aromantic and asexual protagonist, but somehow came out of it wondering why I related way, way more to the protagonist than I thought I would - definitely not what I expected this book to do. For the record, I differ from Georgia in a lot of key areas - I had tons of crushes, both on people I knew IRL and also on celebrities, and I'm happily married in a heterosexual relationship now, so I know I'm not asexual, but it was still uncanny how much I related to Georgia. I have always found the idea of casual hookups, or even casually kissing strangers in a club as very, very unappealing. I'm learning that I might just be demisexual, another term that is fairly new to me. Anyway, really didn't expect to come out of this book questioning my sexuality.

Oh, and why are these teenagers obsessing over things like Moulin Rouge and Romeo + Juliet? Aren't these relics from my time? Or are they so old that they're now retro and it's cool to like them again? I also narrowed my eyes a little that they were on Facebook groups - don't teens avoid that nowadays?

Overall, this book ended up surprisingly enjoyable and readable, and definitely worth reading for just about anyone. If you've left your teenage years far, far behind like me, just be warned that the voice and writing style may take a while to get used to if you don't read a lot of YA, but at its heart, this book is very sincere about its drive to encourage self-acceptance, something that is particularly important for teens to read about, but which I'm sure most adults can also relate to, having once gone through the same struggles and insecurities.