Reviews with content warning for Injury/Injury detail - Solitaire

Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Solitaire by Alice Oseman

152 reviews

pkc's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad fast-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

Yet another Oseman finished and honestly, she does not disappoint! The resemblance to ‘Catcher in the Rye’ is inescapable, BUT, I would say this has more of ‘Heathers’ than Holden Caulfield. I had a lot of love for the cast of characters (many from Heartstopper) and how their story is examined and expanded upon in this much darker narrative. Tori is such an elegantly executed protagonist. I find performative cynicism so dull most of the time, but Tori has a raison d’etre for her attitude and light is carefully shone on it with enough time taken to let it develop. I can’t wait to read my next Alice Oseman novel. I had one irk about the plot, but it wasn’t enough to detract from my overall feelings about the book, so I shall spoiler tag it below.

I was SO BOTHERED that Becky appeared to stay with Ben and I don’t necessarily think that Tori was wrong in being pissed off, considering that she witnessed Ben’s attack on Charlie. Internalised homophobia is probably a decent thing to look at exploring, so I’d like to maybe see that in the future using these characters. I suppose there wasn’t enough space here or it didn’t fit, but anyway. TL:DR Becky was a bad friend for going back to Ben.

Content Warnings

cassie12_21's review against another edition

4.0

challenging sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I enjoyed this book, but I don’t think I could explain the plot to u if I tried.

Content Warnings

vercopaanir's review against another edition

2.0

emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I’m not sure how I felt about this book. Sure made me glad I’m not in high school anymore! It was just kinda… weird to me. It was like a mystery but also a story about mental illness (in fact it was incredibly mentally heavy, just as a warning to anyone interested) and friendship and being a teenager. If you’ve read Alice Oseman’s other books you’ll recognize most of the characters, but the mood is apparently entirely different. I have NOT yet read her other books, so I’m taking the author’s word for it.
For me the most intriguing part was the mystery of who Solitaire was, and the author seemed to do a decent job of dropping hints as well as a couple red herring (herrings? what’s the plural of herring?).
I also had mixed feelings about this audiobook version, because the narrator didn’t do much voice acting in terms of other characters. When there was dialogue between two characters without dialogue tags, I couldn’t tell who was speaking because there weren’t distinct voices. This isn’t a HUGE deal but definitely affected my understanding and enjoyment of the book at times.
Overall, it was okay, but not great and not likely one I’ll read again.

Content Warnings

bg_oseman_fan's review against another edition

4.0

dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I love Alice Oseman’s writing style. This story is not up to the same standard as her subsequent works, but i enjoyed as a glimpse into her evolving style. The mystery isn’t too mysterious, however. Overall a strong book, but in comparison to her other works doesn’t shine as brightly, but it’s still a star!

Content Warnings

tiredtori's review against another edition

3.5

emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

nellienelson's review against another edition

5.0

emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Idek what to say but I loved it so much. It portrayed well how (some) teenagers go through school life nowadays and I loved how Tori is portrayed as an ‘unlovable pessimistic character who ended up with someone who - from the outside - seems like the exact opposite. And they end up being the one thing they both need. It’s really well-written and I loved it.

Content Warnings