Reviews with content warning for Emotional abuse - Loveless

Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Loveless by Alice Oseman

75 reviews

_tee_'s review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional hopeful lighthearted tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

maple_dove's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional hopeful reflective relaxing fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

This book is so good.

Loveless follows Georgia Warr (She/Her), a first-year in college with two best friends. She yearns for a romantic relationship like the movies. However, she will find that that is not what she really wants.

What I liked/loved:

The aroace rep. I like that Georgia is an aroace character which doesn't hate the idea of romantic or sexual relationships (initially). Not everyone aroace person is repulsed by the idea of romance or sex and with the heteronormativity many of us live in, even aroace people can get confused on what we actually want.
The non-romantic, but full-of-love relationships. Love is often characterized as something solely romantic. This book challenges that falsehood, and I'm all for it.
Discussion about LGBTQ issues. Always.
Character arcs where it reveals people are not always as they seem. People often have more depth than we can perceive first glance.
Georgia Warr. She's quiet and awesome. A great combination, no matter what society says. 💛

What I Didn't Like

There was nothing I could particularly point as "flaws." Loveless is amazing. The characters feel so realistic and real.

Favorite Quotes:

In the end, that was the problem with romance. It was so easy to romanticize romance because it was everywhere. It was in music and on TV and in filtered Instragram photos. It was in the air, crisp and alive with fresh possibility. It was in falling leaves, crumbling wooden doorways, scuffed cobblestones and fields of dandelions. It was in the touch of hands, scrawled letters, crumpled sheets, and the golden hour. A soft yawn, early morning laughter, shoes lined up together by the door. Eyes across the dance floor.

"Anyway, you're only eighteen, you've got so much time--" I started to say, but didn't know how to continue.
[...]
It was something that adults said all the time. You'll change your mind when you're older. You never know what might happen. You'll feel differently one day. As if we teenagers knew so little about yourselves that we could wake up one day a completely different person. As if the person we are right now doesn't matter at all.
The whole idea that people always grew up, fell in love, and got married was a complete lie.

Friends are automatically classed as "less important" than romantic partners. I'd never questioned that. It was just the way the world was. I guess if always felt that friendship just couldn't compete with what a partner offered, and that I never really experience real love until I found romance.
But if that had been true, I probably wouldn't have felt like this.
[...]
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.

"Actually," I said, trying as hard as I could to keep the irritation out of my voice, "I'm not really interested in getting a boyfriend."
"Oh, well," she said, patting my leg again, "plenty of time, my love. Plenty of time."
But my time is now, I wanted to scream. My life is happening right now.

"You're OK with--with just being friends?" I asked.
He smiled and took my hand again. "'Just friends' makes it sound like being friends is worse. I think this is better, personally, considering how terrible that kiss was."
I squeezed his hand. "I agree."

Content Warnings

behindherpages's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Content Warnings

tbd24's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional lighthearted tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

fun little YA about finding out you’re ace and also starting university and friendships. There were little things i could be persnickety about but I don’t feel like it because overall I had a nice time reading this.

Content Warnings

moodreadererin's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

This is the first book by Alice Oseman that I've read . It surprised me . I didn't know what to expect going in and I'm glad I read it . This was a book club book.

Loveless follows Georgia as she and her friends go to university . She always thought she was straight and was going to find love someday . She doesn't know why she can't crush on anyone ,only to realize in her university journey that she's asexual /aromantic . This book follows her journey with her friends , discovering that there are other types of love out there .

I definitely recommend this book. It was insightful and heartwarming .

Content Warnings

oddlyghoul's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

Content Warnings

looking4thedr's review against another edition

Go to review page

funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I DEVOURED this book. It’s become one of my all time favourites now. I loved ALL the characters even if I was screaming at them to make better decisions. This book was really comforting and written in a way that you felt like you were friends with the main characters, going along with them in their fun times and struggles.

There’s a sentiment that emerges throughout the book that friendships are just as, if not more, important than romantic relationships (which I wholeheartedly agree with) and I loved that a lot.

There’s also a line near the end that Georgia’s cousin tells her that goes something like ‘treat your friends with the same magic you’d treat a romantic relationship’, and that really impacted me, because I’d never thought about it that way before. Especially with the not being able to fall in love thing, I thought the sentiment was really beautiful :)
It was that bit as well as the parts where Georgia and Rooney did big gestures in the name of friendship; that totally got me in the feels.

To finish off this review, all I have to say is: thank goodness for Sunil <3

Content Warnings

bimess_'s review against another edition

Go to review page

sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

After taking into consideration many of my fellow poc who are on the aroace spectrum, I do not recommend this book to anyone who's figuring out their sexuality. To anyone that expects for the side characters (specifically the poc characters) to have any development outside the main character, they don't.

I did want to know more of the sidecharacters. Especially Pip since I'm a latine person myself. I don't think it was even mentioned which country her family is from either which angers me.

At the end of the day, I enjoyed the book because I had a similar inner war with myself. In terms of being aro and bi simultaneously.

It's true Oseman could've done more. My hope is for this book to be saved and given a sequel that focused on Pip and Sunil. Since they're the ones who had the potential to have powerful stories. But again, Oseman is white. So I'm weary of this as well. Perhaps an adaptation of their stories would be better.

Content Warnings

emilyandthewhippet's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

mrmarshall591's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book is doing wonders. It is a beautiful story overall and the character development is amazing- I love so many of the characters and found myself tearing up at moments of platonic love. But also, having asexuality and aromanticism the forefront of a young adult novel by such a popular author is lifechanging. I was the same age as Georgia when I began to realize I was asexual, and had so many similar thoughts and experiences but I am just picturing the people both (1) younger than her who will be able to find the words for what they were feeling before they get into sticky situations or feel too much self hatred and (2) people older than Georgia reading this who may have been through so much pain and confusion due to feeling like something was wrong with them since they could not feel certain ways. We need more stories like this, not just with an asexual/ aromantic focus but with an emphasis on platonic love and how it is not a lower level than romantic love.

Content Warnings

More...