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greatexpectations77's review against another edition
- 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
4.75
Moderate: Bullying and Homophobia
Minor: Infidelity and Grief
sapphic_alpaca's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Biphobia, Bullying, Cursing, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Outing, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Infidelity
david_slack110507's review against another edition
- 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
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.
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
leonormsousa's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Moderate: Bullying, Homophobia, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Outing, and Gaslighting
dojipengin's review against another edition
2.0
Moderate: Bullying, Homophobia, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Biphobia and Outing
bootsmom3's review against another edition
- 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? No
4.0
Graphic: Homophobia and Infidelity
peachmoni's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Moderate: Homophobia, Sexual assault, and Gaslighting
Minor: Bullying, Cursing, Infidelity, and Violence
valpuri's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Homophobia, Toxic relationship, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Biphobia, Bullying, Infidelity, Outing, and Toxic friendship
anniefwrites's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
Graphic: Sexual assault and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Bullying, Cursing, Homophobia, Infidelity, Outing, and Gaslighting
gailsage_thomps's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Homophobia, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Outing
Minor: Body shaming, Infidelity, and Alcohol