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Moderate: Death, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt
Graphic: Mental illness
Moderate: Eating disorder, Homophobia, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Alcohol
Minor: Violence, Suicide attempt
Graphic: Eating disorder, Self harm, Suicide attempt
Moderate: Bullying, Homophobia
Minor: Fire/Fire injury
Graphic: Suicide attempt
Moderate: Self harm
Minor: Homophobia
Graphic: Eating disorder, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt
Minor: Bullying, Homophobia
At first, I was a bit annoyed by the pop culture references, I'd rather read something that feels timeless; but it sort of started to make sense as I read on. In addition to contemporary pop culture, Solitaire also references classic literature a lot, both in text and subtext. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it heavily references The Catcher in the Rye – it's like a modern retelling of it. Tori seems like your typical melodramatic teen on the outside, but once you start to peel back the layers, you find that there's more to her than meets the eye. She's a caring and sensitive person who deeply struggles to express herself and connect with others, as does Holden in TCitR. Also, Micheal's last name is literally Holden! Pride and Prejudice is referenced a lot too, but I'm less familiar with P&P as I've only seen the movie.
Around the halfway point, I began to lose interest a bit. The writing started to get redundant. I felt like it hit on the same few beats multiple times, messing with the pacing and plot structure. The tone had a bit of a strange shift as well. Things kind of fell apart in the last act. I'm still not a fan of the ending, but what I didn't know until afterwards, is that Oseman wrote this as a teenager! I didn't know going into this that it was her first publication. It's understandable that her first book isn't her best. I'm glad it exists, because without Solitaire, there would be no Heartstopper. I didn't realize that either, that Heartstopper is technically a spin-off of Solitaire, which is very interesting! And explains the timeline. I assumed Solitaire was a prequel but it actually starts not far from where Heartstopper does, so you're seeing some of the same events but from Tori's perspective.
So, while this has notable flaws, I still think this is worthwhile and would recommend it to Heartstopper/Oseman fans.
Moderate: Eating disorder, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Bullying, Homophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship
Graphic: Eating disorder, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Homophobia
Minor: Ableism, Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Eating disorder, Homophobia
Graphic: Mental illness
Moderate: Eating disorder, Self harm, Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Bullying, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Alcohol
Graphic: Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Violence, Suicide attempt
Minor: Homophobia