A review by enchantedsleeper
Solitaire by Alice Oseman

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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