Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Solitaire by Alice Oseman

232 reviews

corsetedfeminist's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

corikane's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

dramatic and a little wild

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Violence

aino_maria23's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Mental illness, Toxic friendship, Suicidal thoughts, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing, Eating disorder, Self harm, Violence, Stalking, and Bullying

Minor: Alcohol, Outing, and Medical content

cdoubet's review against another edition

emotional mysterious tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Eating disorder, Fire/Fire injury, Bullying, Cursing, Homophobia, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

Minor: Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual content, Vomit, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

bethsimone_'s review

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

"I don't know what's going to happen to us. I don't know how long I'm going to be like this.
All I know is that I'm here. And I'm alive. And I'm not alone."

I haven't felt truly represented by a character until Tori. Her apathetic personality and the sensitive handling of her mental health is extremely well done.

You can physically feel Tori shine brighter when Michael is near, they have a beautiful relationship in which they are two halves making each other whole.
The dialogue between them on the roof made me tear up, mostly because Tori's feelings were extremely familiar to me (and anyone else that has experienced suicidal ideation) but largely because I was holding my breath, feeling Michael panicking trying to get Tori to understand she needs to be here, she is important, to get her away from the edge no matter what. It's heartbreaking, because Tori truly doesn't understand what other people see when they look at her.

"You need to be here," he says.

I especially love the fact that Oseman doesn't 'fix' Tori or write a 'happy ending' that ties things into a neat bow. Mental illness is not something that can be fixed, and recovery in not a linear path, it'll likely shape your whole life.

What Solitaire does, is deliver not exactly an anti-suicide message, but hope. Hope that you can find the joy in life again, doing pointless things just to pass the time, laughing at nothing; being alive.
Throughout the book, Tori slowly 'defrosts' from her apathetic, numb state, not exactly melting by the end but opening up enough to allow herself to feel, and continue to grow. She isn't exactly changed, but she acknowledges that, and finally sees she isn't alone, she has people that love her for who she is, and they'll still be there when she doesn't.
Oseman writes friendship and chosen family in a really beautiful way, and is the real love story underpinning Solitaire.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Eating disorder, and Mental illness

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Bullying, Suicide attempt, Violence, Blood, Self harm, Cursing, and Injury/Injury detail

enchantedsleeper's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.75

I found this a very engaging and readable book. It's nearly a 4-star read but it did start to lose me about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way in when Tori's actions and the way she treats other people start to feel repetitive and frustrating. (I can roll with it for about half of the book but then it's like, okay, are you just going to run away again? Fair enough I guess). There were a weird number of scenes where a character would just get up and walk away from another character mid-conversation, without explaining why. On the whole I found this pretty realistic to being a teenager and I related to Tori a lot (or maybe I should say I could sense how I would have related to her at 17) but then some of the characters' actions and conversations felt unreal.

Charlie's characterisation is pretty odd in this. Even though I wasn't expecting it to be 100% consistent with Heartstopper, he still seems very... limp? Like when everyone was beating up Ben because of him and yet Tori was more concerned. Or the way he reacted to the fireworks at the concert. It didn't feel right - it felt like he should *do* more. Have more of an opinion. Very strange.

There was lots to like and find engaging about this, even though some bits lost me partway through. There were some really good lines and I felt like Oseman stuck the landing with the ending. No regrets about having picked this up to check out after Heartstopper.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Eating disorder, and Violence

beelzebub24's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad fast-paced

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

5.0

i really liked the use of repetive thought. They may of not made any literal sense but it is something i relate to massively.  Thoughts don't always make sense and it felt good to see that represented in literature.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Eating disorder, Homophobia, and Self harm

Minor: Violence

mbrogs2024's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Alcoholism, Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Suicide, Self harm, Alcohol, Chronic illness, Fire/Fire injury, Bullying, Eating disorder, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Homophobia

saturnsaz's review against another edition

dark emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Tori is so real. Brb crying. 

I love the writing. I love when it's consciousness streaming and it's just like you really get into the head of a character. I was a little shocked at how the story took a turn at the end(literally so unexpected)

I thought Tori was ace so when they kissed I was a little confused. Maybe it was just all that build up?

but I think it needs some reflection. I really liked the build up of the friendship. 

I've read a little bit of heartstopper and watched the show. Tori felt a bit more real because of the fact that I've seen their house and the actress who plays her. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness

Moderate: Eating disorder and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Homophobia, and Self harm

ravenn15's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I was not expecting the second half atall the way it escalated was crazy

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and Mental illness

Moderate: Alcohol and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Vomit