Solitaire Kindle Edition

While Solitaire is a decent read on its own (even if the twist is completely predictable), this is not a book for fans of Heartstopper.The depiction of Charlie Spring in this book is depressing to the point of tragedy porn, and the difference is so jarring that it deeply undermines Heartstopper as a work on its own. Perhaps Oseman has matured as a person and recognizes that her depiction of teen life is both as inaccurate and inappropriate as it is needlessly depressing, but the fact that Heartstopper takes place before Solitaire makes all the fondness and warmth of that story drain away because we know this is where it is leading. I honestly can't read Heartstopper the same way anymore, and that breaks my heart.

I hated Catcher in the Rye. If I wasn’t already a fan of Alice Oseman’s work, I’d have never picked this up because of that comparison. I’m so glad I ignored it completely. Catcher in the Rye is such a sad, lonely, angry book. I never could relate to Holden Caulfield. But I can relate to Tori Spring. She is surrounded by people that care about her, but she’s so stuck in her own head, trapped by trauma and guilt and depression, that she can’t see it. Holden Caulfield stumbles through trying to figure out life on his own, but what Tori figures out is her connections to other people. It’s such a weird thing as a teenager to come to the realization that other people are real, and also struggling, and are just as human as you are, and they don’t have it all together either. It’s such an obvious thing but it’s such a huge part of the whole “coming of age” experience.I love the way this book handles relationships, mental illness, communication, and all of its characters. It’s clear that Alice Oseman puts a lot of love and thought into each of them. It’s the kind of book that makes you wish these people were real because you’ve come to care about them so much. I didn’t want it to end.

I read this book after finding Alice's webcomic (Heartstopper) online and reading it about 3 times through in the span of a couple days. (Heartstopper is a comic that focuses on the main character of Solitaire's younger brother and his relationship with his in-book boyfriend). This book is incredible, and I think that it is a great book for high schoolers and college students even, exploring both light-hearted and darker subjects in a respectful and interesting way. There are some aspects of the book which I find to be a little dated, (mostly blog/tumblr/fandom things, but then again there could very well be people that are still into supernatural and sherlock in this day and age. Who knows?) but for the most part I was really pulled in by the story and enjoyed the book thoroughly.As a heads up, this book does cover some topics that could be triggering or whatnot, such as mentions of suicide attempts, eating disorders (and possibly OCD - not explicitly stated but my own inference), self-harm, and general self-negative thoughts. I'm not trying to give any spoilers away or anything but keep that in mind if these are something that you might want to avoid.All-in-all this was an excellent story, and as a side note, I absolutely love how effortlessly Alice includes such a diverse group of characters in all of her novels, diverse not just racially but also in terms of LGBT+ representation. It is a joy to see all of these wonderful characters together and it warms my heart that she does this.

but just as goodjust, in a different way. ive always been a fan of sappy love stories, which heartstopper is. this isnt, but i loved this book. i relate to tori a lot, more on the inner thoughts level, not how she acts. i think it was realistic and beautiful, if not utterly depressing. thats the point of it though, isnt it? and its not like it was all depressing, it had moments. so many cute moments. i love this cast of characters so much, and im excited to read more heartstopper and other of alice's works in the future. theyre an inspiration to me

I absolutely adore Tori Spring. She's like the most likeable unlikeable protagonist I've ever encountered in a book. I say this because she tries really hard to be this misanthropic introvert, but you still can't help but love her. Right off the bat she puts you in mind of a female Holden Caulfield, which Oseman clearly foresaw readers making that comparison and even humorously addresses it at the end of the novel when Tori exasperatedly asks, "Can't any teenager be sad and, like, not be compared to that book?"But Oseman has written much more than the female, 21st century version of Holden Caulfield. There is a sense of plot here that, while subtle and meandering, is much more apparent in Solitaire than Catcher in the Rye. To the point where the combination of smart characters and teen-angst-filled plot make me picture this as the next big contemporary teen movie sensation. But in order for that to happen, more people need to read Solitaire. I don't think this is a book that has gotten much buzz or publicity and that is a shame because it deserves so much more attention than it is getting.

I really connected with our protagonist; Tori. She is really introverted, doesn’t have a lot of energy and she doesn’t have a whole load of friends. She explains that she doesn’t really know where her place is at school, despite feeling pretty ordinary, which really spoke to me. I also loved that Tori only drinks diet lemonade throughout the book as I pretty much survive off Pepsi Max. She also manages to explain how I feel about talking on the phone, which was fun to see.“I hate the phone. It’s the worst invention in the history of the world because, if you don’t talk, nothing happens. You can’t get by with simply listening and nodding your head in all the right places. You have to talk. You have no option.”Tori is a very relatable character, not just for me, but for anyone who is or has been a teenager. Especially if you have ever felt like an outsider. She is a blogger and introvert which is something a lot of readers can relate too. However if this isn’t you, there is Michael who (outwardly, and at first) seems so cheery and positive. He was a wonderful character and friend. I really liked his personality. He grows throughout the book and we learn so much more about him and how he keeps a lot inside, which is a lot of peoples coping mechanism. Also, he could well have been bi or ace or any sexuality at all but he refuses to label his sexuality as he doesn’t see why he has to and that’s a really interesting choice.There is wonderful rep in this book, not many labels are used so I can’t specify with confidence, however I’m pretty sure I spotted depression, anxiety and definitely homosexuality. Specifically, Tori’s brother has really struggled with his mental health and we watch as Tori herself slowly realises she might be struggling too. We see how her mental health effects her relationships with everyone and how they cannot possibly know what is going on inside her head. She tells everyone she’s fine because that is what is expected from her. Tori’s relationship with her parents played a minimal role in the book and I would have found it interesting to explore that more and see how it affected Tori’s mental health.Whilst I generally enjoy plot driven books and find less enjoyment in the character development, with Solitaire, I was all in for the characters and only mildly interested in the actual plot. I wanted to know who was behind Solitaire, however, I felt the “pranks” they were pulling off were unrealistic which took me out of it slightly. They were dramatic and added an element of mystery to the book, but I feel like the real meat of the story had nothing to do with Solitaire.Overall, I think this was a wonderful read with something for everyone that tackled a bunch of really tough topics really well.

I really liked that Tori honestly felt like a teenager who was really struggling with her mental health problems, but was trying to almost convince herself she was fine. She pushed away her friends, couldn't focus on anything but scrolling through her blog, and started messing up at school, too. I was never as mean as Tori was while my depression was undiagnosed and untreated (at least, I hope I wasn't) but honestly, depression is difficult and not everyone experiences it the same way, and having Tori reflect some aspects of depression I never see in media was what really made this book for me. Tori isn't always likeable, and she doesn't like herself. She struggles with self loathing, which then turns to hating the people around her (or just feeling totally numb) and making awful jokes with gallows humour to get herself through. It's not a good way to cope, but honestly a lot of coping mechanisms you develop for yourself (especially as a teen) aren't good.I loved Tori's relationship with Charlie. They love each other so much but they're both really struggling. You can't always help someone else when you don't know how to deal with yourself, and that's a difficult thing to learn. Tori sees some signs Charlie isn't ok (and he sees them in her) but doesn't want to believe he isn't ok. It's heart breaking but also realistic.I think its also important that this book showed that recovery isn't linear, you can still have bad periods while in therapy (as Charlie is) and it doesn't mean that you've failed. You're still worthy and loveable. I saw a parts of my teen self in both Tori and Charlie, and also in their school lives.For me this book has such a focus on the characters, and so, I can definitely see why people wouldn't like it, because Tori would be hard to connect to if you didn't understand why she is the way she is. But for me, this book really made me cry and my teenage self would really have appreciated this book, and the lessons in it. Sometimes you just need to reach out to someone. They won't fix you, but they can try and help you fix yourself. Also sometimes it's easier to make yourself do something for another person. Again, not the best/healthiest coping mechanism, but I have done it a LOT in my life, and I finally realised I should be doing it for me, it just took a while.Solitaire were really a secondary plot point for me, as I figured out who it was and why they were doing it early on but that didn't make it less interesting. It was intriguing watching Tori's experience of the pranks, seeing her learn how to feel something, and care about what was happening around herThere was a lot of development in her character done through parallels to Solitaire's actions so I enjoyed reading about them.I had a very personal reading of this book, and so a lot of moments hit me quite hard. There's suicidal thoughts/feelings/actions, self harm, an eating disorder and bullying. They were hard to read about, and I cried multiple times reading this book. It wasn't an easy read and I can understand why Solitaire might not work for other people, but this felt personal and important to me. I'm not saying it 5 Stars because I didn't agree with everything in the book, and Tori was judgemental and sometimes awful - I know it's her character but still! But I really loved this book, and I have read it during a difficult patch, and connected to it on so many levels. I'm looking forward to reading more of Oseman's work, as this and Heartstopper have been a definitely hit for me!

I found this book very interesting, i first met Tori in the heart stopper volumes, i i thought she was great. When i read this book i realised there is more to Tori than I originally thought. My first thoughts of Tori in this book was wow she is kinda depressing, however, to realise that she actually has many layers and and just wants to be herself, not many people understand that like the other characters within the book, however, there are a select few that understand, like Micheal. I can say that overall I found this book interesting.

This was a surprisingly slow read for me, possibly because I wasn’t enjoying it all that much. It felt like Oseman was trying to pack too much into one novel, and the sort of love triangle didn’t work for me. Tori’s character was almost hyper realistic which found her hard to follow.I think Oseman’s writing was great, but the central character and her relationships didn’t quite ring true. She was too much of a stereotype trying not to be one.I think Oseman’s books will probably improve as she writes more so I’d be interested to read a later novel of hers

This was an enjoyable insight into a modern teenager's view of the world and on this evidence it's pretty much the same as when I grew up in the 80s - despondency, confusion and inexplicable bouts of full-on depression for little or no apparent reason! In this sense, it was strangely comforting to know that the youth of today are not so different after all.The proliferation of social media throughout the book is well handled, as you would expect from such a young author and the writing style is straightforward but with a maturity that is also impressive in a writer of such a young age.The story itself is quite slender and not overplotted but this only adds to the realism of the story. But these types of first person story stand or fall on whether or not you want to spend time with the main protagonist and in this case I did: Tori Spring is a very likeable protagonist and though her sometimes inexplicable bad moods can sometimes become a bit repetitive, this is exactly what being a teenager suffering from angst is like!So, on the whole, this was an interesting, realistic and enjoyable read, if a little middle of the road for my tastes, but this could be a reflection of the YA nature of the book itself. But if you want an intriguing story about teenagers that's not filled with graphic violence and bad language but has a warm, relatable heart, then this could be for you.