Platonic Love in the Osemanverse
Currently most known as the author of the Heartstopper graphic novels and creator of the TV adaptation, Alice Oseman has been finding her way to the general public after spending years only being popular in a niche part of the book community. Through her four full-length novels and five graphic novels, she has explored the themes of platonic love and found family in ways that not many authors of the young adult genre do. The books mean so much to so many people that her works have been fan-named "Osemanverse," since they all take place in the same fictional universe. It can be really hard to find young adult books that do not have romance as a main focus, and Oseman is one of the authors who masterfully contribute to the opus of stories exploring different types of platonic love in ways that can open our minds to the magic of our friendships.
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When I first started reading Oseman’s novel Radio Silence on my phone while I was bored in high school, I had absolutely no idea how much the author and her books would come to mean to me in the future. But I did notice there was something different about the story I was getting myself into. Was I finally reading a story about an opposite-gender friendship that never turns into anything more romantic, yet is incredibly meaningful and full of love regardless? As someone who has never bought into the opinion that opposite-gender friendships cannot exist, I was excited. After reading her first book, I made it my mission to read all of her published works because I was obsessed with her storytelling and the amazing relationships she created between her characters. And, fast forward to now, she is still one of my favorite authors of all time, and I will take any and all opportunities to recommend her books to people I know. But what makes her books so special in the first place?
Being the first Oseman book I read, Radio Silence made a big impact on me. Following a girl named Frances as a main character, the story focuses on her meeting a boy named Aled and forming a surprisingly strong connection with him while they’re both experiencing an end-of-high-school existential crisis and battling to decide between doing what is expected of them and doing what they truly want in life. As Frances says in a mini-chapter after her friendship with Aled starts, “You probably think Aled Last and I are going to fall in love or something. Since he is a boy and I am a girl. I just wanted to say— we don't. That's all.” Frances and Aled never fall in love, but they grow to love and care for each other so much in a short amount of time. This book is a love letter to those people we meet in life that we feel so instantly comfortable with that it almost feels like we’re recognizing them from some previous life. Both Frances and Aled are very closed off to most people and don’t make friends easily, which makes their friendship and their instant understanding of each other and comfort in each other’s presence all the more special and precious to them. As the book develops, the story also goes into some serious themes of mental illness and the feeling of being powerless to help those you love most, as well as finding ways to take care of them even when they don’t want to take care of themselves. The found family trope also comes into play, as Frances and Aled realize that, even though they’re the only people who understand each other in the way they do, sometimes it takes a village, and the only way to find your people is to be authentically yourself and vulnerable.
In Oseman’s latest novel, Loveless, the main character Georgia starts university and goes on an identity discovery journey of being on the asexual spectrum. While she grapples with the fact that she will never lead a socially acceptable life and follow regular life milestones, it’s her friendships that make her understand that love comes in all kinds of forms, and romantic love is definitely not the only type that can bring magic and meaning into your life. The story explores two types of friendships, Georgia’s relationship with her school friends Pip and Jason who she grew up with, and her newfound and unexpected friendship with her university roommate Rooney. Her childhood friendships go through their first more serious conflicts, and this is shown in a very realistic way that includes immature actions teenagers take while absorbed in their own personal issues. Even though Georgia messes up multiple times during her journey, her love for Pip and Jason trumps everything, and the grand gestures she makes while trying to make it up to them are some of the most wholesome and heartfelt moments I’ve read.
On the other hand, her friendship with Rooney comes unexpectedly, especially since they are the opposite of each other in numerous ways and don’t seem compatible at first glance. However, being constantly around each other lets them get to know each other on a deeper level than either of them expected. Rooney has been putting up a thick wall around her true feelings and hiding behind a social party-girl persona ever since her traumatic high school relationship, and Georgia is the first person who sees her for everything that she is and loves her for it. Near the end of the book, Rooney tells Georgia that she saved her and that they, in a way, each other’s big love, even though it’s not in a romantic, socially acceptable way. The found family Georgia forms around her helps her come to terms with the fact that platonic love being the center of her life doesn’t have to be a bad thing, on the contrary, giving friendships the magic you are expected to only give a romance can be an incredible experience.
Oseman’s third full-length novel, I Was Born For This, follows the perspectives of two different characters, a boyband fangirl and the boyband’s lead singer. This opens up themes of very different friendship dynamics. Angel is meeting her long-time online friend Juliet in real life for the first time and has to navigate that transition while discovering the power of fan-formed friendships, but also the hardships of adjusting them to real-life dynamics. Meanwhile, Jimmy navigates his friendships with his other two bandmates, Lister and Rowan, and tries to balance his professional life with his personal one, while simultaneously having the same people there with him in both life aspects. As for Oseman’s two other works, debut novel Solitaire and graphic novel series Heartstopper, even though the main focus of the stories is on the romances themselves, the friendships are incredibly fleshed out and complex, and the found family dynamics always find a place that emphasizes their importance.
Alice Oseman’s books not only have incredible representation and try hard to bring very necessary diversity into young adult literature, but they also show how crucial platonic relationships are in formative years and much beyond, especially if found family is something you crave because of your life circumstances. If you want to cry about fictional friendships you’re not a part of and ponder for hours how you can show your friends how magical their existence in your life is, pick up an Alice Oseman book as soon as you can.
