Reviews

Solitaire by Alice Oseman

lduester01's review against another edition

5.0

This has now got to be one of my favourite books!!!!! Seeing Tori's daily life after only seeing Charlie's from the hearstopper books was so much fun. It's made me love her even more; Tori is such a laugh, and some of the comments she made about her peers, school and her English work reminded me of my time in six form, some of which are sooooo true for a lot of people I believe. I can't wait to re-read or listen to this book again in the future. Absolutely amazing work Alice x

kuriboh's review against another edition

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.0

taylorthebookwitch's review against another edition

4.0

I really liked honing in on Tori’s life in this installment of the Osemanverse. It’s definitely got a different (darker) tone than her other works so far, but I love Tori as a character and it was cool to see what was going on in her mind. Alice Oseman, our continuity queen.

kyliexrae's review against another edition

2.0

reading alice osman’s backlog and hopefully the rest improve because her debut is… not great. 2 stars for background nick & charlie, michael being a realistic teenage love interest, and an attempt at portraying modern holden caulfield level teenage angst.

sid_mei's review against another edition

emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

atos520's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

An accurate depiction of what it’s like to live with a voice in your head. Even as you’re trying so desperately to make something of yourself, everything feels distant and unimportant

sarahern29's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

4.0

Can definitely tell this was written before Heartstopper but still an interesting read

barbras's review against another edition

2.0

There are some truly lovely moments, but overall - just okay. Tori felt like a completely different character than the one in the Heartstopper series, and it was pretty meandering, and the adults were all very one dimensional. They felt like the "wah wah" adults in Charlie Brown. And the events were a bit much? I don't know.

celestialcachet's review against another edition

2.0

Another one of those “I didn’t like it as much as I hoped I would” stories. There were too many instances of “this is a finite statement” that a page later gets changed. Also way too many frustrating exchanges that go like this

Person A: “Just tell me whats wrong”
Person B: *walks away in a huff without saying anything*


I think this would have been entirely my shit when I was in HS but thankfully I have grown out of a lot of those pesky characteristics.

I read the book on account of it being another corner of the Heartstopper world (I believe this one came before the comics?) so it would be awesome to see the TV show Tori’s character built out a bit more by leaning into this lore.

hall_jlm's review against another edition

1.0

First of all - I am clearly not the age demographic for this book. I am aware of that.

Also, I really enjoyed Heartstopper so thought I would give this a go.

If I read this book when I was 16/17 I would have lapped it up.

However it just makes me think of that meme/bit from Riverdale when Jughead refers to himself as a weirdo? That almost summarises what the main characters are like in this book.

Also, you burnt down a school and there’s no real comeuppance? I mean sure.

Overall, I didn’t like it. I think I see why people do like it but good lord don’t aim to be like any of the people in this book, they’re terrible.