SOLITAIRE: TikTok made me buy it! The teen bestseller from the YA Prize winning author and creator of Netflix series HEARTSTOPPER (Solitaire, 1)

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and typically i save 1 stars for books that are problematic and this one certainly is, but at least i read it fast without problem ig

The acclaimed debut novel by Alice Oseman, author of the YA Book Prize 2021 Loveless. Solitaire presents the characters who inspired the popular webcomic and graphic novel series Heartstopper, one of Netflix's leading series today. One day she meets angry boy Michael Holden. Angry at the world for expecting him to be someone he’s not. Angry at people for thinking him weird and not worthy of their attention and respect when he’s just being himself. Angry all the time. But hiding it. Hiding it because people would judge him even more, they would make him feel even more lonely than he is now. Michael Holden is the softest boy you will ever meet. He’s angry but that doesn’t he isn’t trying to make Tori happy, really happy, not fake. He’s not trying to save her, she doesn’t need to be saved, she needs to see she’s not alone in this world, that people like her exist. Michael Holden doesn’t want to save her, and he doesn’t need to be saved either. They just both need someone to help them. And their this person for each other. The long answer: I write my books as if they are taking place in the present at the time that I am writing them. This obviously doesn’t technically work in the timeline of the books, because I wrote Heartstopper long after I wrote Solitaire, even though Heartstopper takes place before Solitaire!

I first heard about Solitaire on Tumblr. I've been following Alice Oseman ever since and I desperately wanted to read her novel. So when I finally, finally! found it at the library I think I maybe made some loud joyful sound and hugged it...yeah. The large majority of teenagers who attend Higgs are soulless, conformist idiots. I have successfully integrated myself into a small group of girls who I consider to be "good people," but sometimes I still feel that I might be the only person with a consciousness, like a video game protagonist, and everyone else are computer-generated extras who have only a select few actions, such as "initiate meaningless conversation" and "hug." Solitaire is not a perfect book. I mean, no book is a perfect book, but old Solitaire definitely has flaws. Michael Holden is sort of a manic pixie dream boy for most of it, Evelyn is sort of there to be the early 2010s mean girl, and it's pretty unrealistic with the bigger pranks and all. I'm not kidding, the final prank was unrealistic as hell, and you can definitely tell that Solitaire is a phony organization. Let's talk about Tori's brother a little bit first because that is what I found most disturbing. I think I could have been okay with lots of things in this book but this pointed out how problematic it truly is.

Please also note that Solitaire is a much darker, more graphic, more serious book than the Heartstopper series, and may not be suitable for all readers who have enjoyed Heartstopper. aaanyway never mind the strange plot points where people keep interacting with tori and choosing to hang out with her or asking her to do stuff for them even though she treats everyone like utter trash (and no, depression and self-hatred isn’t an excuse to be a judgmental asshole to everyone else)Solitaire is a story about mental illness told through an unreliable narrator. The presentation of mental illness in this story is sometimes sensationalised, underexplained, and may be harmful to readers who have experienced mental illness. Please read safely and responsibly.

Although I disliked a few characters - I did not really understand why the main character even put up with them - and did expect something else from the ending, I just have to give 5 stars. I believe this is a book you either love or hate, understand or don't. And I love and understand. Tori never ever smiles. She doesn't find joy in anything. She hates everything. But when she talks to Michael she smiles. in all seriousness, alice’s books are really easy to get through and read when you don’t want to think too much, but her climactic endings are always, Always, so over the top.

Games

If you want to know the truth, the Catcher in the Rye is one of my favorite books of all time, and so I was a bit suspicious of the blurb of this one. Publishers always wanna compare books about teenage sadness and mental health to Catcher, and I always sort of raise my eyebrows at that. See, they always wanna reel in readers by comparing contemporaries to famous books, and then you read the book and it's pretty goddamn phony. But Solitaire? do not compare “coming out” to your book-loving father as a book hater to coming out to homophobic parents. This is not a love story. Tori Spring is a girl who likes to blong and sleep. Last year, before everything that happened with her brother, Charlie, she had to face the harsh realities of high school and that she will eventually have to talk to other people. But that's in the past. Now there's Solitaire and Michael Holden. But books–they’re different. When you watch a film, you’re sort of an outsider looking in. With a book–you’re right there. You are inside. You are the main character.”