It was all sinking in. I'd never had a crush on anyone. No boys, no girls, not a single person I'd ever met. What did that mean?
Loveless is a 2020 book by a British author Alice Oseman. It follows Georgia Warr, a romance-obsessed high school graduate just starting her first year at Durham University with her two best friends Jason and Pip. Her new flatmate Rooney and college parent Sunil seem nice enough, there is a healthy dose of banter and uni society drama, everything seems to be perfect except in spite of her nearly perfect knowledge of romantic tropes and storylines, Georgia just can't find that special someone. Will Rooney finally help her break out of that bad luck spell? Or is there even a bad luck spell?
Loveless contains examples of the following tropes:
- Affectionate Nickname: As the romantic tension between them grows, Pip starts calling Rooney "Roo", while Rooney starts calling her "Pipsqueak".
- Amicable Exes: After winning him back at Shakespeare Soc, Georgia apologizes to Jason for using him as part of her experimenting phase. Jason accepts the apology and doesn't mind remaining friends with her, even if he was heartbroken that his crush on her wasn't reciprocated.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: The story's B plot has Rooney and Pip constantly bickering with each other while wrestling with their mutual feelings.
- Cast Full of Gay: Sunil is a homoromantic nonbinary ace who uses he/they pronouns, Pip is a lesbian, Jess is bisexual and aromantic, Rooney comes out as pan and Georgia realizes she's aroace.
- Celeb Crush: Rooney and Pip have huge crushes on Henry Cavill and Keira Knightley, respectively. Georgia, on the other hand, can't relate to them because she's aroace.
- Chekhov's Gun: The jacket that Pip leaves in Georgia's room during Fresher's Week. It's later used as a reason for Georgia and Rooney to talk to her and apologize for driving her away when the former two drunkenly kissed each other at the Bailey Ball.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Rooney's friend Beth, who's first shown in a photo on Rooney's side of her and Georgia's dorm. It's revealed that Beth was Rooney's Only Friend in high school, but the latter left her by transferring schools just to be with her boyfriend. He turned out to be abusive and Rooney struggled with breaking up with him, and she regretted giving up everything for him, especially Beth. Beth would then call Rooney years after just to check on her.
- Closet Key: Rooney has all her casual hookups with men, but falls in love with the female Pip, which helps her realize she isn't completely straight.
- Coming-Out Story: Over the course of the book, Georgia realizes she's aroace, comes out to her friends, and learns to be accepting of herself.
- Domestic Abuse: Jason's ex-girlfriend and Rooney's ex-boyfriend were both emotionally abusive, and part of their current character arcs are recovering from the damage.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Pretty much everyone. Georgia learns to be happy about her lack of romantic or sexual attraction, Pip and Rooney start going out, Sunil decides to take up a Masters Degree in Music, and the whole gang moves in together.
- Embarrassing First Name: Pip finds her real name "Felipa" too "girly" and prefers going by "Pip".
- Experimented in College: In a way. After Georgia tells Rooney that she's definitely not into guys, she assumes she's gay and drunkenly suggests they kiss 'just to be sure'. This upsets Pip and drives her away because she believes that Georgia betrayed her by kissing her crush Rooney.
- Fangirl: Georgia likes reading Shipping fanfics, but despite knowing the common romance tropes, she can't understand why she doesn't feel the same attraction as the characters.
- Gay Aesop: The book talks about the misconceptions about asexuality - both internal and external, only to show how they are both wrong and harmful.
- Gayngst: Pip and also Georgia in her own way. While the story focuses on Georgia struggling with her aromanticism/asexuality, Pip struggles with her Unresolved Sexual Tension with Rooney as a lesbian.
- Hate Sink: Lloyd, the former president of Pride Soc, who is shown as an aphobic jock-type character. He's also against the inclusion of other so-called "internet orientations" and the expansion of the social activities beyond things that one would associate with the ClubKid lifestyle. He gets his karma when Georgia, after accepting her sexuality, deliberately spills her drink on him when he makes an acephobic remark.
- Incompatible Orientation: Everyone and Georgia, due to her being aroace and not attracted to anyone. She herself speculates that Pip and her would probably make for a good couple if she was gay. Later this gets explored in a more dramatic context with Georgia and Jason.
- I Want Grandkids: The parents of Georgia's cousin Ellis, who is over 30 and still single, use this rhetoric on her, believing that she'll grow up lonely without a husband. Ellis doesn't budge because she's aromantic/asexual, and she prefers to adopt children if she wants them.
- Last Het Romance: Georgia spends some time dating Jason to make sure she is straight.
- LGBT Awakening: After Georgia's failed kiss with her supposed high school crush. However, she still tries to force herself into the life of romance and only finally admits that she's aroace to herself after getting disgusted by her first kiss with Jason.
- Lovable Jock: Jason is a member of the university's rowing team and the tallest member of the main cast, yet he's gentle and understanding towards Georgia.
- Mentor in Queerness:
- Sunil starts out being assigned as Georgia's "college parent". The fact that he's also asexual and is Platonic Life-Partners with an aromantic woman allows Georgia to get some proper information about both her orientations before she she fully realizes that they apply to her. Once the latter has happened, Sunil helps her navigate them.
- Georgia and the older Ellis end up having a mutual version going on. Ellis gives Georgia an idea of what's waiting for her in the next fifteen years of her life, while Georgia is the one to inform Ellis that what they are has a name and there are other people like them out there.
- Performance Artist: Pip and Sunil are flamboyant in their own ways and are big fans of theatre. They immediately sign up for Shakespeare Soc.
- Perspective Flip: In the chapter "Horny and Confused", Pip texts Georgia about her first makeout session with Rooney before the latter ran away. The short story Hands Against Our Hearts expands on this scene, where its chapters alternate between Pip's and Rooney's POVs.
- Platonic Declaration of Love:
- Georgia organizes a concert on the river with her friends so she can make a "college proposal"note to Pip in order to win her back at Shakespeare Soc, and also to apologize to her as a friend for driving her away when Pip caught Georgia and Rooney kissing while drunk.
- Rooney delivers a grand one to Georgia after the latter tells her about her nightmare where all her friends die and she's left all alone without a romantic partner. Rooney assures her that she loves her as a best friend, and she'll stick with her until they grow old together.
- Queer Colors:
- Sunil wears an ace badge on his suit, which bears the colors of the ace flag.
- Pip is revealed to have a big lesbian pride flag hanging above her bed in the short story Hands Against Our Hearts.
- Really Gets Around: Rooney often spends the night out clubbing and looking for quick hookups with other students.
- Right Through the Wall: On Georgia's first night at her dorm room, she can't sleep due to the thumping noises caused by the couple having sex in the room above. It's subverted when it turns out later on that the sound is coming from the washing machines in the laundry room instead.
- Second Love: Pip becomes the second love interest to Rooney after the latter moves on from an abusive relationship in high school and engages in casual hookups in college.
- Title Drop: Each chapter's title (except for the ones in Hands Against Our Hearts) appears somewhere in the chapter itself. There's also a Title Drop Chapter which ends on this line:Georgia's narration: I didn't want to be loveless.
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- Jason calls Georgia out for using him as an experiment to see if she is straight, because he was hoping that his crush on her would be reciprocated, especially after he broke up with his abusive girlfriend.
- Pip doesn't take Georgia and Rooney reluctantly kissing to see if Georgia is gay very well and leaves the Bailey Ball in a huff after she calls them out.
- Wholesome Crossdresser: Sunil, who's nonbinary, is fine with dressing in masculine or feminine clothes, and likes playing "gender-confused" roles in plays. He also requests to cosplay as Velma Dinkley for Georgia's surprise for Jason to try winning the latter back to Shakespeare Soc.
- Wrong Guy First: Rooney is revealed to have had an abusive ex-boyfriend, and she regrets giving up everything for him, including her Only Friend Beth. She struggles with letting go of the pain from her previous long-term relationship and wrestling with her feelings for Pip.
