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chaoticnostalgia's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Eating disorder, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Fire/Fire injury, and Self harm
Moderate: Violence, Bullying, Alcohol, Suicide, Cursing, Blood, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Sexism
onesimplenote's review
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I honestly love this book. Tori and Michael feel so real, which can be difficult to find with YA books where many characters tend to feel very scripted and unrealistic. Overall, I think it represents high school without too many overused clichés.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Eating disorder, Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, Homophobia, and Self harm
Moderate: Violence, Sexism, Cursing, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Medical content
Minor: Suicide attempt
lybrarie's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
As with all of Alice Oseman's work, I really enjoyed this book. This author's writing style is really easy to read, even when covering difficult topics like this book does. I liked that it doesn't go into intense and graphic detail about some of those matters, but covered them in a way that still made them feel real - I would urge you to look up the content warnings if you think there is a potential for this book to contain triggering content for you.
I did find the revelation towards the end of the book somewhat predictable, but I still definitely enjoyed the process of getting there. I could guess what was going to happen, but I wasn't one hundred percent sure on how the leading events connected to it. So it was definitely fun to read and find out how everything came to be.
I didn't find any of the main characters (Tori, Michael, Becky, Lucas) to be particularly loveable, but I think, for this book, that is what made them good characters. They were all flawed and dealing with their own issues, which made them feel real. Tori in particular - as the book is told from her point of view - was definitely a characters I felt for despite not liking her all that much. I personally could relate to the way she was feeling, which I think is why I didn't really like her. I understood why she was thinking the way she was thinking and acting the way she was acting, which is why I think I found that some of her decisions were annoying me - because I knew what she needed to do to make things better for herself and she seemed to be doing the complete opposite.
Overall, I really liked this book and I am looking forward to reading more of Oseman's works and getting to spend more time with these characters.
I did find the revelation towards the end of the book somewhat predictable, but I still definitely enjoyed the process of getting there. I could guess what was going to happen, but I wasn't one hundred percent sure on how the leading events connected to it. So it was definitely fun to read and find out how everything came to be.
I didn't find any of the main characters (Tori, Michael, Becky, Lucas) to be particularly loveable, but I think, for this book, that is what made them good characters. They were all flawed and dealing with their own issues, which made them feel real. Tori in particular - as the book is told from her point of view - was definitely a characters I felt for despite not liking her all that much. I personally could relate to the way she was feeling, which I think is why I didn't really like her. I understood why she was thinking the way she was thinking and acting the way she was acting, which is why I think I found that some of her decisions were annoying me - because I knew what she needed to do to make things better for herself and she seemed to be doing the complete opposite.
Overall, I really liked this book and I am looking forward to reading more of Oseman's works and getting to spend more time with these characters.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Homophobia, and Eating disorder
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Sexism
snowhitereads's review
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
As you all probably know by now, I absolutely love the Heartstopper series. I particularly love Tori, the sister of Heartstopper's main character, Charlie, so I knew I had to pick this one up
The book focuses on Tori Spring, who is an extremely pessimistic teenager and hates just about everything. Although I love Tori in Heartstopper, I did find her frustrating in this book.
Though Heartstopper features the same characters, this book felt so completely different in terms of tone and character personalities that it might as well have been an entirely different series.
Even though this book is very easy to read, unfortunately the plot and character development felt underdeveloped and confusing, very surface level.
The ending was abrupt and left me feeling confused at what I had just read. I don't know what to think about this book.
It’s important to note that there should be so many trigger warnings surrounding this book. There are a lot of dark things that are addressed, such as eating disorders, self-harm and depression.Besides that, there are constant HP references which drove me crazy.
Overall, it's not terrible, but you can definitely tell this is a debut by a 17 year old.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship
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