choconougat reviewed Solitaire by Alice Oseman
Teen agony story with good depiction but lacking some growth
3 stars
Ah. I went to read this because in the whole Heartstopper series, I recognised Tori in her two scenes as a similar person to me. She indeed is, in this story. It reminds me of what I was like when I was in school (and I have been thinking I'm not not normal XD). What Tori thought and felt, I still think and feel. Especially, I share her feeling that everyone has grown up and changed and only I am still at where I was in heart. I am still very much a child. But I like it and I don't wanna change and that is where I start to disagree with the book. The ending is not a real stable solution, if I may use such words to describe it. It left me feeling like sth balanced on a local unstable equilibrium point and that lack-of-solution left me feeling …
Ah. I went to read this because in the whole Heartstopper series, I recognised Tori in her two scenes as a similar person to me. She indeed is, in this story. It reminds me of what I was like when I was in school (and I have been thinking I'm not not normal XD). What Tori thought and felt, I still think and feel. Especially, I share her feeling that everyone has grown up and changed and only I am still at where I was in heart. I am still very much a child. But I like it and I don't wanna change and that is where I start to disagree with the book. The ending is not a real stable solution, if I may use such words to describe it. It left me feeling like sth balanced on a local unstable equilibrium point and that lack-of-solution left me feeling not really satisfied, a bit unconvinced, a bit worried and a bit disappointed. But well, it's written when the author was 18, I can't expect a Granny Weatherwax appearing in Tori's life and holding her hands and guiding. This is maybe enough for 18.
But the self-hatred, isolation, anger and suicidal spiralling are pretty triggering (but sounding true, at least for me), be warned.