Welcome to Litsy!

Books read in the Month of March: 12
Favorite book: Solitaire by Alice Oseman

4.5 ⭐️
The way this book touches on mental health was so amazing. It is hard to believe that the author was only 19 when she wrote this but I can also relate. Tori Spring is the epitome of young women isolating and trying to coping through mental health alone while feeling the pressure of school, family, and social life. And just like reality, it all and switch in an instant. Much love for this book, for Tori, and for Alice Oseman.

Tori Spring‘s just trying to get through high school when she comes across the mysterious Solitaire. Michael Holden joins in on her search to unmask Solitaire.

I really liked the voice for the audiobook b/c it‘s the girl that‘s casted as Tori in the show Heartstopper. This one did have a darker tone compared to Heartstopper; maybe that‘s why it‘s not my reading vibe. Also, the mystery was kind of obvious.

Hard to read with Tori‘s (and the other characters‘) depression, but I‘m glad I did. This was originally published in 2014, and reading the present day interview with the author at the end of the book was really eye-opening. The tone is very YA and also introduces characters that appear in Heartstopper.

“Nothing‘s going to change until you decide you want it to change.”

What a wonderful book that tackles the pessimistic views of someone who refuses to acknowledge, change, and grow :)

“Michael‘s okay. He‘s proven that. I don‘t understand why you can‘t accept things like this. If you can‘t accept things you don‘t understand, then you‘ll spend your life questioning everything. Then you‘ll have to live out your life in your own head.”

Alice Oseman‘s writing continues to make me more intrigued. What an amazing author :)

Keeping track of the Osemanverse timeline, Solitaire takes place in the middle of Heartstopper Vol. 4, and introduces us to Nick & Charlie! Centre stage is the notoriously pessimistic Tori Spring as she navigates woes, stresses, friends, family, & mental health in her self-deprecating pithy narration. Especially excited for her aro/ace-coded identity to become a canon in Vol. 5. I swear Oseman rooted around in my brain for gloomy inspiration 🩶🍃.

Resonating HARD with this today 🩶🌬.

So true. The number one reason I love books so much : escapism and the chance to be someone else for a little while 🩶.

I think I might have found my personality twin in Tori Spring! 🌬🌧🖤
As a side note, I'm already majorly heartbroken for Charlie and had to take a break to patch up my weeping heart!

I'm LOVING Tori Spring's POV 🖤🤍🩶.

The book that introduced the Heartstopper boys. This one is about Tori, some shenanigans at school, meeting new people, struggling with old friends & stress about life, family & mental health. This book is pretty heavy but Tori is a great character, I love Michael, seeing Nick and Charlie is great too. This book is so ace-coded, finding out Alice wrote it before she labeled herself as such, makes so much sense. TW: undiagnosed depression&symptoms

It‘s a good thing I didn‘t see the blurb before I started reading, before a comparison to Catcher in the Rye wouldn‘t have made me pick up a book.

This is the story of Tori, Charlie‘s sister from The Heartstopper and from the author‘s note it says that this takes place during volume 4.

I enjoyed getting to know Tori, she her with her friends and trying to get by. Tori is struggling too with her things.

9th book for #MarchMadness

I just love this scene. Image having a friend like that.

It‘s around 6 am and you have just talked to your ex-BFF on the phone.

Maybe the friendship isn‘t as over as they think?

Also please do not judge my photos for reviews I am figuring out a pretty and interesting way to take them

Solitaire is a fairly slow paced book but the mystery of who is running Solitaire and why keeps the reader invested. But the highlight of this book is the characters they do not fit the typical mould of YA they are depressed, anxious and angry but not in the cliche way I see a lot in my reading Oseman writes in such a way that their feelings are realistic to a teenager in present day which is refreshing and emotional to experience and I adore it

Hello! It‘s been a while but I am back and excited for the new year. This year my New Years resolution is to read every morning with my coffee before starting my day hopefully this will help me be able to reach my goal of 35 books this year. I will be documenting and reviewing all the books I am reading so stick around! ❤️ #newyear #readinggoals

#pop22 Scrolling through my GR‘s challenge, I found that Solitaire fulfills a prompt 🙃

I liked this one but didn‘t love it because I thought it was a bit too YA-ish for me. I did like that it covers a lot of what high schoolers are feeling and going through and that they would be able to relate; mental health and depression, a feeling of loneliness etc. I‘m so glad I got to experience high school in the 80‘s & 90‘s rather than today.

I saw that penguin released some new audio books of Pratchett'S witches series, gifted them to a friend, and could not resist trying the xigxag app for myself. Anybody else using it? I like the idea of switching between audio and epub seamlessly.

This wouldn‘t normally be my cup of tea, but I‘ll read anything in this universe. I ❤️ Tori and Charlie and Nick, and Michael & Becky are growing on me.

Looking on the bright side of a challenging week/weekend: getting to read outside with s‘mores. I am OBSESSED with Heartstopper and I‘m consuming as much media around it as possible. 💕🍃💕🍃

I found the depressiveness in this one draining, but that didn‘t stop me from reading every single part of the series. I love Charlie and Nick.

I would not recommend this book if you want a story that goes all the way through the process of healing. I WOULD recommend this story if you want to be anchored in the mind of a teen with depression. Tori isn't always likeable (ugh, what a term), but she IS fully fleshed out, and I appreciate that. #yalit

This is a hard one to review, it was a sadder book then I expected after reading Heartstopper (this takes place during Volume 4) but focuses on Tori. It has a very different tone, and deals heavily with depression, so know that going in. For a book written by a 17 yo it is impressive, but it does show her age at times. 3.5⭐️

So glad I finally read Oseman's first novel, the one that started it all! Check the TWs - it gets real.
I enjoyed learning more about Tori and her struggles with not fitting in. Michael was also a cool character to get to know. But I liked how everyone had flaws and issues to deal with - it is high school after all.
The 'Solitaire' mystery honestly took a back seat to all the character development but I didn't mind.
#SeriesRead2022 @TheSpineView

#4 Listened to this on audio. It was a good book, though sad at times. This one is hard to describe. It's about a girl in school in England. She likes to sleep and blog. And keeps to herself a lot after an event that happened with her brother. Then there is this unknown character named Solitaire who is doing weird things at her school that are escalating. It is interesting and I loved the audio. But it does have some trigger warnings.

. . .freedom of nonspeech 👏 😄

This is a strange, at times quite grim book, and it is palpably teenagery. I also don't love Oseman's writing style in this book. And yet, I enjoyed it and am glad I listened to Jayne Entwistle read it in her lovely British accent, because Tori is a difficult, depressed protagonist whose world I was grateful to have a peek into at the end of the day. I recommend checking Oseman's content warnings here: https://www.aliceoseman.com/content-warnings.

Struggled to get through the first major section of it, but it ended up a good story. I think half of the problem was identifying too much with Tori, since I was way too similar in high school. And the parallels with other media were stated a little too heavily, but otherwise worth the read.

This was a bit of a let down for me. I‘ve loved the other books by Oseman I‘ve read but for some reason this didn‘t hook me in. It was okay but nothing too special.

Went for a little #audiowalk this evening to return some library books🍂

I‘m a big fan of the Heartstopper graphic novel series - and slightly older versions of Nick and Charlie appear in this story about Tori Spring (older sister of Charlie).

I‘ve been spending a bit of time on tumblr lately - and I‘ve been loving the authors interactions with readers - and just all the lovely fan art that Alice‘s work has inspired... #tbrmountain

Sometimes I find cool books at the Dollar Tree.

I was lucky enough to find this at a thrift shop!

Starting a new book 😄 I like the writing already. I don't really know what this one's about, but we'll see! 😀 #currentlyreading #coffee #yalit #quote #reading #ya

This one, for me, was a confusing one - I honestly think I've passed the catchment age for this book. It felt really slow because of its setting and the fact that "Solitaire" wasn't actually the main theme of the book - I expected Solitaire to be the main theme but it seemed to be a subplot sitting behind the rest of the story. I loved the writing though and am looking forward to reading something else by Alice! Give it a go!

Hello!!
It's my first post on here! Yay🎉
Let's start this off with a little introduction:
•my name is Isabella, but Isa is okay!
•I've always been in love books, but this passion started maybe 4/5 years ago.
•I'm obsessed with cats.
•I don't know what else to say😂
So yeah, that's me.

Just so you know, I didn't like this book at all. I just like how this photo looks😁

I've been in a sort of life funk which put me in a book funk. It took me a month to reread "Slaughterhouse-Five", but i think I'm back. I just finished "Solitaire" which was a super easy read and a very quotable book

Christmas book haul! 🎄

So beautifal. Tori is quirky and sarcastic. Great pranks vibe.