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midnightmarauder's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Heartstopper follows the protagonist, Charlie Spring, as he navigates high school after being outed as gay. After being mostly shunned away by everyone and being involved in a toxic relationship with another boy, Ben, Charlie meets Nick Nelson, who he begins a romance with.
I really liked this story. I really liked the art style and I really liked all the characters (except Ben, all my homies hate Ben) I also identify greatly with the internal struggle that Charlie had to go through after being outed. I also went into toxic relationships and friendships where the other party only wanted to be seen with me when no one was watching.
Overall, I'm excited to read the rest of the series.
I really liked this story. I really liked the art style and I really liked all the characters (except Ben, all my homies hate Ben) I also identify greatly with the internal struggle that Charlie had to go through after being outed. I also went into toxic relationships and friendships where the other party only wanted to be seen with me when no one was watching.
Overall, I'm excited to read the rest of the series.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Homophobia, Toxic relationship, and Outing
Moderate: Emotional abuse and Physical abuse
civetta's review against another edition
emotional
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Biphobia, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, and Outing
heliacentr's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia
Moderate: Bullying and Emotional abuse
fkshg8465's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This is everything a young adult book today should be about, and to do it graphically was brilliant. The Netflix series was equally good. Was glad to see it followed the book pretty closely. Looking forward to reading the rest of the series.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Outing, and Sexual harassment
llockhart4567's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Emotional abuse and Outing
birdwithablog's review against another edition
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Biphobia, Bullying, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship
devynreadsnovels's review against another edition
emotional
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Violence, Outing, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Biphobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Classism
david_slack110507's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
This was my first graphic novel and I actually really liked it and its formatting which was something I was not expecting and I also have watched the first two seasons of the show that is based off of these books, which I also really enjoyed and feel affected the ways in which I see this book, both good and bad.
I really enjoyed the core story here of Nick and Charlie's blossoming romance and Nick beginning his quest of self-discovery and understanding, particularly towards the end of the novel. I found their 'friendship' to be really well written, heartwarming, and including elements of suspending your disbelief as well as managing to be somewhat realistic at the same time. I really liked their characterisations and even in this short novel, they went through development and had clear characters by the end of it. I will say that besides from Nick and Charlie, this was not true of any other characters sadly as any other characters introduced doesn't really get any time to be developed as it's solely focused on Nick and Charlie which is where my watching of the show may have steered me into a direction of bad expectations for this book.
Going in having watched the show, in particular season 1, I assumed that volume 1 would be covering most if not all of season 1's content but it turns out to only be about 3 or 4 episodes worth which leaves it on a cliffhanger that, while I know the resolution of, still took me by surprise. The second thing of note is that season 1 has a much more expanded view of the world of Heartstopper than volume 1 does, with season one featuring Elle and Issac who are not in the book (at least to my knowledge with Elle as I don't recall her being mentioned or seen briefly), Tara and Darcy having a much more in-depth and detailed story as well as being much bigger and developed characters, as well as Tao actually being Charlie's best friend and having much more screentime and character to him. I hope that this is rectified in volume 2 as those were some of my favourite aspects of the show, getting to see beyond just the central romance and seeing all these other stories unfolding at the same time.
However, I do feel like watching the show helped as well as it made me much more excited for the rest of the series and seeing where it goes as I do feel like I will at the very least read volume 2 to end off the current chapter of the story and then go from there but overall, while my enjoyment of the book was hindered slightly by having expectations that the books would be exactly the same as the show, I did really have a fun time reading this as it was different from what I normally read both in formatting and in genre and it was successful in both of those differences. I'm interested in seeing where the next books go and if there will be many differences to the adapted material/the show.
I really enjoyed the core story here of Nick and Charlie's blossoming romance and Nick beginning his quest of self-discovery and understanding, particularly towards the end of the novel. I found their 'friendship' to be really well written, heartwarming, and including elements of suspending your disbelief as well as managing to be somewhat realistic at the same time. I really liked their characterisations and even in this short novel, they went through development and had clear characters by the end of it. I will say that besides from Nick and Charlie, this was not true of any other characters sadly as any other characters introduced doesn't really get any time to be developed as it's solely focused on Nick and Charlie which is where my watching of the show may have steered me into a direction of bad expectations for this book.
Going in having watched the show, in particular season 1, I assumed that volume 1 would be covering most if not all of season 1's content but it turns out to only be about 3 or 4 episodes worth which leaves it on a cliffhanger that, while I know the resolution of, still took me by surprise. The second thing of note is that season 1 has a much more expanded view of the world of Heartstopper than volume 1 does, with season one featuring Elle and Issac who are not in the book (at least to my knowledge with Elle as I don't recall her being mentioned or seen briefly), Tara and Darcy having a much more in-depth and detailed story as well as being much bigger and developed characters, as well as Tao actually being Charlie's best friend and having much more screentime and character to him. I hope that this is rectified in volume 2 as those were some of my favourite aspects of the show, getting to see beyond just the central romance and seeing all these other stories unfolding at the same time.
However, I do feel like watching the show helped as well as it made me much more excited for the rest of the series and seeing where it goes as I do feel like I will at the very least read volume 2 to end off the current chapter of the story and then go from there but overall, while my enjoyment of the book was hindered slightly by having expectations that the books would be exactly the same as the show, I did really have a fun time reading this as it was different from what I normally read both in formatting and in genre and it was successful in both of those differences. I'm interested in seeing where the next books go and if there will be many differences to the adapted material/the show.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Bullying, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Outing, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Biphobia, Eating disorder, Infidelity, Misogyny, Grief, and Gaslighting
bailey_bean's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
I absolutely love the style of the characters. Alice Oseman designed them perfectly. The book is pretty emotional, but not in a bad way. The next books are really funny, and I recommend this series to everyone. Especially since the 5th book came out 4 days ago 😂 Anyways thanks for reading my review!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Sexual assault, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Cursing, Emotional abuse, and Outing
Minor: Bullying and Grief
calamityin's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Been avoiding it for a long time, because I got the impression when it was first coming out that it was kinda a queer story written for straight people and most of the people who I saw talk about it seemed to be almost fetishizing the story. But I ended up with a copy and it only took an hour to read, at max, and I'm very glad I did. It's very sweet and cute and I felt that all my previous concerns weren't based in reality but rather some skewed reviews years ago.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Sexual violence, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Emotional abuse
Minor: Bullying and Outing