A review by vercopaanir
Solitaire by Alice Oseman

emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings