Book 714: Heartstopper, Vol. 1 (Heartstopper #1) – Alice Oseman

[Check out my updated February 2022 review here.]

I pre-ordered this at the same time I pre-ordered Sticks & Scones. I’d seen it on all the British book bloggers pages and was curious because it looked adorable and the tag line “Boy meets boy. Boys become friends. Boys fall in love.” was just too much for my sappy heart to handle. (Obviously.)

What I didn’t realize is there are four volumes currently published and one forthcoming in 2022! And this doesn’t even include the OG appearance of protagonists Charlie and Nick from Oseman’s debut novel Solitaire, which I obviously will be reading. But, OMG it will be worth the read (and the wait)!

Charlie and Nick are A. DOR. A. BLE. Like so much so. Charlie was forced out of the closet the previous year and through a new school cross class initiative meets Nick, an older rugby player, and the cuteness explodes from there.

Oseman did a wonderful job of writing both Charlie’s emotional turmoil from being mistreated by a closeted (maybe bisexual) classmate and at falling for what he presumes is a straight classmate. And on the other side she did a great job of portraying Nick’s confusion as he’s falling for Charlie. The scene when Nick googles if he’s gay and gets overwhelmed and just curls up in his blanket was perfection. And these panels stood out to me in the book:

There’s just something about seeing both Nick and Charlie’s perspective as they’re walking through the party, technically holding hands for the first time moments before their first kiss and it’s just wonderfully perfect.

It’s hard not to compare this book to other young adult graphic novels I’ve read recently. From a story perspective, this has a somewhat similar to Ukazu’s Check, Please (#Hockey & Sticks & Scones) and Koningsberg’s Openly Straight and Honestly Ben, but really focuses almost exclusively on Charlie and Nick’s budding relationship versus their friendship with others and building a “chosen family”. The drawing style, mostly because of the single color usage with black reminded me of Panetta & Ganucheau’s Bloom (and thus Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home), but there was also a slight hint of manga style to it, especially around Charlie. If you look at the early drawings Oseman includes you can see it even more pronounced.

Recommendation: What a wonderfully adorable coming of age/coming out/first love illustrated story. I’m excited to see where it goes and will have to restrain myself from reading the entire story online (tapas io website) at least until I catch up on the four printed volumes. I can’t wait to see Charlie and Nick’s relationship evolve and the library needs to hurry up and let me read it’s copy of Solitaire!