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jessyhayward'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
4.0
Graphic: Eating disorder and Mental illness
Moderate: Alcohol
Minor: Abandonment
kyrstin_p1989's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Bullying, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Grief, Outing, Abandonment, and Alcohol
lauracollins096'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
3.25
Moderate: Eating disorder, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Abandonment
Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Alcohol
frankieclc's review against another edition
3.5
Graphic: Eating disorder
Moderate: Abandonment
Minor: Sexual content
andloveistoolong'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
4.5
Moderate: Cursing, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Abandonment, and Alcohol
Minor: Bullying, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, and Outing
stevia333k's review against another edition
- Loveable characters? Yes
3.5
this feels like a 4 star book, but personally i have to make it closer to the half way mark than that. i think the intended audience is teenagers, but i'm not sure due the choice of some adjectives being written in the 1st person that might've sounded better in the 3rd person. Hallelujah i've survived long enough & i'm growing.
It was a decent story & I appreciated the info explaining the british school system at the back of the book because holy shit that's been tripping me up for a while. they're a cute couple with strong relationship foundations.
that being said i got triggered with at the very least the photography plotline? i read heartstopper & then i read this book so i'm pretty sure i missed a lot because i don't remember the medical conditions.
personally, i would've preferred them to not have sex, but this book ain't alone in that distaste. like this book explicitly say it takes relationship scripts from the straights TM & amatonormativity. (tao & his girlfriend, along with the discussion of soulmates) seriously, the contrast of them being kids whose communication skills sucked about how to do long distance with ... look this book ain't alone in the problem & i was an outlier as a kid in being hostile to dating because i didn't think kids should have sex so. however, apparently sex is a thing that's done & IDK enough about sexology to not cringe about the common experience & I also don't trust a lot of sexology because of genital reductionism.
also the use of words like boyish & teenagers (as opposed to say kids our age)... the writing is written in the 1st person, like with the choice of boyish, what's that in comparison to? as someone in my late 20's it creeped me out, like i'm almost the age of the author, this needed better editing.
i read this book for a bookclub & this was considered positive lgbt+ representation, but obviously i got triggered.
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Abandonment, and Alcohol
Moderate: Eating disorder, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts
stevia333k's review
- Loveable characters? Yes
3.5
this feels like a 4 star book, but personally i have to make it closer to the half way mark than that. i think the intended audience is teenagers, but i'm not sure due the choice of some adjectives being written in the 1st person that might've sounded better in the 3rd person. Hallelujah i've survived long enough & i'm growing.
It was a decent story & I appreciated the info explaining the british school system at the back of the book because holy shit that's been tripping me up for a while. they're a cute couple with strong relationship foundations.
that being said i got triggered with at the very least the photography plotline? i read heartstopper & then i read this book so i'm pretty sure i missed a lot because i don't remember the medical conditions.
personally, i would've preferred them to not have sex, but this book ain't alone in that distaste. like this book explicitly say it takes relationship scripts from the straights TM & amatonormativity. (tao & his girlfriend, along with the discussion of soulmates) seriously, the contrast of them being kids whose communication skills sucked about how to do long distance with ... look this book ain't alone in the problem & i was an outlier as a kid in being hostile to dating because i didn't think kids should have sex so. however, apparently sex is a thing that's done & IDK enough about sexology to not cringe about the common experience & I also don't trust a lot of sexology because of genital reductionism.
also the use of words like boyish & teenagers (as opposed to say kids our age)... the writing is written in the 1st person, like with the choice of boyish, what's that in comparison to? as someone in my late 20's it creeped me out, like i'm almost the age of the author, this needed better editing.
i read this book for a bookclub & this was considered positive lgbt+ representation, but obviously i got triggered.
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Abandonment, and Alcohol
Moderate: Eating disorder, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts
maddiep0114'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? It's complicated
4.75
Moderate: Mental illness and Abandonment
Minor: Eating disorder, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexual content
avagrossman's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
definitely a comfort book and for that i’d give it ⭐️5, but writing wise i don’t think it was the best of alice’s work, that doesn’t mean i didn’t like the book, i did. a lot.
i think its because the book is more of an extra happy sappy book, more like a diary than first person?
spoken to you rather than described
i would still highly recommend reading it if you watched the netflix show or have read alice’s other books!!!
Graphic: Abandonment
Moderate: Alcohol
Minor: Bullying, Eating disorder, Homophobia, and Outing
crufts'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
4.25
For two years, Nick Nelson and Charlie Spring have been the quintessential highschool couple.
Once upon a time, Charlie was the weird gay kid in school, Nick had just figured out that he was bisexual, and both were afraid for anyone to know that they were dating. But things have changed. Charlie has become Head Boy of the junior year, Nick is finishing his senior year and is excited to go to university, and everyone at school knows they're a couple.
It should be perfect. Charlie should be happy for Nick, going away to university and studying what he wants to study. And yet...
Like the other short story (This Winter), there is only one main conflict, but it's an interesting one and was explored well: When one half of a couple moves away, is it inevitable that they break up?
The novel had a good sense of pacing and change, hit all the important highs and lows of a short-story structure, and carried my attention to the very end. I never felt like the story dragged or was waffling through filler.
Also similar to This Winter was the alternating change of viewpoint between Charlie and Nick. I especially liked seeing Nick's viewpoint because he's not the author's average protagonist: he's kind of blokey, he likes sports, he doesn't care for social media, and he's more likely to get angry than sad.
I think you can tell when an author loves a character, and when you read Nick's first-person narration, I can see that the author loves him just as much as Charlie even if he's not her typical style of protagonist.
Another treat in this novel was the illustrations, which are drawn in the same style as the Heartstopper webcomic. It's always a delight to see a scene the way the author visualizes it.
I also liked how Charlie's distaste towards university was expressed. I was previously frustrated with this theme in Radio Silence (review linked here) because I couldn't relate. But the way it was expressed here felt a lot more reasonable, as Charlie explains why he hates the idea of university so much:
I hate hearing Nick talk about university. I'm a horrible person ... But lately he's been talking about it all the time. And every single time he mentions it, it just reminds me that ... I'm getting left behind.
Finally, the ending scene was so sweet it made me cry, and the illustrations elevated it further. Curse, you Alice Oseman! How dare you write such a touching story!
It's hard to find anything to complain about in Nick and Charlie. But near the conclusion of this ending scene where Nick and Charlie are
For example:
Since this was the climactic ending scene, I felt this was a real waste: instead of continuing the beautiful cinematic descriptions and seeing the characters clearly, we suddenly get this vaguer, blurrier part which isn't explicitly described.
Even so, this was a very minor complaint and I still thought it was an excellent novel overall.
I would definitely recommend this book to people who enjoyed Heartstopper, Solitaire, or the other short story This Winter. (See my review of This Winter here.)
Moderate: Abandonment
Minor: Eating disorder
Eating disorder: Charlie's previous brush with anorexia and his ongoing recovery is mentioned.Abandonment: Guess what Charlie's afraid of?