Thank you, Alice Oseman. Thank you for writing a book that I related to more than I've ever related to a book before.

I highlighted so many quotes from this book:
"I'd spent so much time thinking that my one true love just show up one day. I had been wrong. I had been so, so wrong. Everyone else was growing up, kissing, having sex, falling in love, and I was just... I was just a child. And if I carried on like this...would I be alone forever?"

"It was fun to read about in fanfics and see in movies, but the reality was kind of just like, Oh. Yikes. I'm uncomfortable, get me out of here."

"There were guys who had fun hair or good fashion or a nice smile. But I wasn't attracted to any of them. I didn't feel any sort of desire. When I tried to picture standing close to them, kissing them, touching them... I grimaced. Disgusting."

"I knew what it was like to feel bad about not having kissed anyone. And to feel pressured into doing it because everyone else was. Because you were weird if you hadn't. Because this was what being a human was all about."

"'Asexuality means I'm not sexually attracted to any gender. So I don't look at men or women or anyone and think, Wow, I want to do sexy stuff with them.' This made me snort. 'Does anyone actually think stuff like that?'"

"It was so easy to romanticize romance because it was everywhere ... I could see it all, all the time, all around, but when I got closer, I found that nothing was there. A mirage."

"People didn't really just look at boobs or abs and get turned on. Did they?"

"People are really out there just...thinking about having sex all the time and they can't even help it? ... People have dreams about it because they want it that much? ... I thought all the movies were exaggerating but you're all really out there just craving genitals and embarrassment. This has to be some kind of joke."

"There were so many things that I would never do. Would never even want to do or feel comfortable doing. So many little things I'd taken for granted, like moving into my first place with my partner, or my first dance at my wedding, or having a baby with someone. Having someone to look after me when I'm sick, or watch TV with, in the evenings, or going on a couples' holiday to Disneyland."

"I would never be one of these people. Flirting. Falling in love. Happily ever after."

"I've never had a crush on anyone in my life ... I liked the idea of it but...the reality..."

"It wasn't just a dislike of kissing. It wasn't a fear or nervousness or 'not meeting the right person yet.' This was a part of me. I did not feel the feelings of attraction, of romance, of desire, that other people felt. And I wasn't ever going to."

"Was everyone just having sex and falling in love all the time? Why? How was it fair that everyone got to feel that except me?"

"I was angry at the world for making me hate who I was ... I was angry at every single romance movie, every single fanfic, everyone single stupid OTP that had made me crave finding the perfect romance. It was because of all that, no doubt, that this new identity felt like a loss when in reality, it should have been a beautiful discovery."

"I don't like guys. Oh, so you like girls? No, I don't like girls either. What? that doesn't make any sense. Yes, it does. It's a real thing. You just haven't met the right person yet. It'll happen with time. No, it won't. This is who I am."

"I don't like anyone like that. I never do. This is just who I am and one way or another, we're all going to have to put up with it. I can still do amazing things with my life."

"So...I never had any crushes when I was a child. Not any real ones, anyway. Sometimes I confused friendship for them, or just thinking a guy was really cool. But I never really fancied anyone. Even celebrities or musicians or whatever."

"I used to dream of a spellbinding, endless, forever romance. A beautiful story of meeting a person who could change your whole world. But now, I realized, friendship could be that too."

"'Because I know myself. I know what I feel and...what I have the capability to feel, I think.' I smiled weakly at her. 'I mean, how do you know you won't fall for a guy one day?' Pip made a face. I laughed. 'Yeah, exactly. You just know that about yourself. And now I know too."


Sorry, I know that was a ton of quotes but I just felt like this book truly reflected my own feelings and I found so much of it truly relatable.
And to my cousins: I guess now I should read Heartstopper.
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