'Set in Melbourne, Loner is a humorous and heartfelt exploration of new adulthood. Lona kills her days by sneaking into the dark room at her old art school to develop photographs. She kills her nights DJ-ing the roller disco at Planet Skate. She is in inexplicably, debilitatingly love with a bespectacled Doctor Who-obsessed former classmate, and in comfortable, platonic love with her best friend Tab. Lona works hard to portray a permanent attitude of cynicism and ennui but will her carefully constructed persona be enough to protect her from the inevitable sorrows and unexpected joys of adult life? Loner re-examines notions of social isolation experienced by young people, suggesting sometimes our own company can be a choice and not a failing.'
Lona is clearly a young woman on the cusp on trying to figure out what she wants from life and whether societal expectations are the right path to go down. What this means is that it is clear that she is having a dilemma as to what she believes is the best for her and sometimes this goes against the normality of what people believe to be life itself. However, this is not necessarily a bad thing. As sometimes in order to be truly happy, you have to be truthful in what you actually want and what makes yourself tick before getting involved with human relationships with of any kind.
In some ways it feels like she is very disenchanted with life itself and what it has to offer. Not in a bad, dark mental health kind of way, but more that she is beginning to see certain cracks of what it means to live as a human in general. Even when she begins to participate with certain aspects of life, it still seems like she is fighting against those who believe she should be doing things a certain way, rather than doing the things that truly makes her happy. It shows that sometimes it not about the character of the person, but rather the thoughts and processes of people around you.
The people around her, such as her boyfriend, best friend and family seem almost like they are a part of another world which Lona clearly is not able to open up to yet. If she will ever will be a part of this club will be another question altogether. It is almost like she purposely goes against the grind of everything she knows to be happy within herself (or as happy as she can be - as long as she can binge-watch Buffy on Netflix). In this case, it is almost like she has to put a front for others to make them happy instead.
However, it does feel like there were some occasions where other characters just simply disappeared without much of an explanation which is quite sad. I don't think that they were forgotten in a way that was by accident. In some ways, it is almost like Lona's state of mind and how she is able to process certain events and the people within it at certain points. Otherwise, it is like she might suddenly combust with all these things that she doesn't want to do. In some ways it makes me think of whether she has social anxiety. It could make sense, especially as she does not willingly want to share her feelings why she doesn't want to go out and instead spend a night in.
The thing that I have with Lona is that I really do feel some of the sadness that she experiences with her peers. In fact, if I gave up university, which I nearly did, I would have probably been going through far too relatable experiences to her own. Thus, even though she seems alien in some contexts, you can't help but think of what could be if you also chose to go down the same avenue.
In total, I originally wanted to give 'Loner' five stars as it seemed different and something that is far too relatable to those beginning their own journey into the 'big bad world'. However, after much consideration, I found some of the book to not be as cohesive as I would have hoped. At first the chapter sequence felt very fresh and new, but the more that time progressed, it became frustrating as it felt like it was more of a device to jump to different parts of the story that did not necessarily make any sense.
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