Reading Nick and Charlie by Alice Oseman made me remember how much fun Heartstopper could be, but it also made me frustrated.
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What I am trying to say is that I do enjoy the story and I think it's one of the best "boy's love" media I stumbled upon - because it's relatable, modern, deals with mental issues without sexualizing them it's not problematic. That's a huge win-win situation.
But at the same time, it's not exactly world-breaking. It's fun, it's nice, the comics look rather cute but the story failed to make me interested enough to stay caught up with it and actually follow the author and her works.
Nick and Charlie (2020)
Author: Alice Oseman
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
ISBN: 978-0-00-838966-6
Nevertheless, when I noticed Alice's book "Nick and Charlie" in a local bookshop, I was overjoyed. It was cheap (unlike the comics), it was in English (unlike the comics) and it was just one book (unlike the comics). For a poor student, who collects LGBT+ books it was a sign from the God.
I bought it, along with Loveless from the same author and went home, happy and content that I had a proof that I read and enjoyed the story.
That was in November 2022 and I have yet to picked up either of the books. Until now. Finishing The Song of Achilles boosted me to read as much as possible while I'm in the mood, and since Nick and Charlie is only 152 pages long (or so) I decided to speed-read it.
I must say, I am very disappointed, frustrated a bit angry and most of all, I think Alice should have stick to comics.
The letter's are huge, the spacing is awful, and she is using my most hated type of speech marks ‘…’. But that's technical side.
When it comes to writing, the story feels extremely rushed to me, there is no space no time between certain moments. There are no descriptions, there is no world building. It does feel like if she made a comic and put the panels in sentences.
I was not going to comment much on this book. But one information persuaded me to rant like this. That is as follows.
On page 102, Charlie says to his mother "He broke up with me." and goes on. On page 109 Aled (Charlie's friend) asks him "So... is that it, then? Have you, erm, broken up?" and Charlie's line is " 'Yeah.' I realize this is the first time I've said it."
So... have I missed something? Do I not get it? Is this a language barrier in work?
The whole book was about them breaking up over it, since their principle of not talking about the issue lead to them exploding into an argument.
Not bad story, quite important look on their relationship and them as characters, it provided lots of information and new look on certain character but it was not good.
There was a lot of generic plots & prompts used that work well, but are soooo stereotypical they are not fun anymore at all.
If I was a teenager, I would love this book. I know I would, because back then I thought it was great and fun and unique and I dreamed of having that. Unfortunately, it's a few years too late now.
While Heartstopper is 3/5 starts, I am giving Nick and Charlie ⭐✩✩✩✩ and all I can praise about it are the cute silly drawings.
That concludes this book, makes me nervous about Loveless (and makes me want to put it off even more now) and we can later dive into Heartstopper the TV series (2022) that I am rewatching this time around.
