Is Solitaire by Alice Oseman a love story?

Gr 9 Up—Sixteen-year-old Victoria "Tori" Spring is the personification of angst, slowly slipping, day by day, into the depths of despair. On a good day, she can convince herself she feels nothing. Her best friend has become preoccupied with boys; her brother, Charlie, is recovering from an episode of mental illness and attempted suicide; a former childhood friend has suddenly resurfaced with expectations that she can't fulfill; and her mother cannot tear herself away from the computer long enough to notice Tori's decline. Then, there's Michael Holden, the crazy new student who refuses to let Tori alienate herself from him the way she is doing with everyone else. He forces himself into her life at the same time as a bizarre prank is unleashed to instigate rebellion among the students at Higgs. Solitaire.co.uk delivers messages via blog posts and by commandeering the schools' computers and PA system, touting a rallying cry of "Patience Kills." Strangely, all of its enigmatic messages seem to bear some resemblance to episodes in Tori's past. When the pranks begin to turn dangerous, Tori convinces herself that she's the only one who can put a stop to it. Told in the first person, Tori's wry voice and dark humor provide a counterpoint to her descent into depression. Nineteen-year-old author, Oseman, opens a frightening window onto life as a teen in today's world, summed up by Tori's sardonic remark, "It's funny because it's true." A fascinating debut from an author to watch.—Cary Frostick, formerly at Mary Riley Styles Public Library, Falls Church, VA

From the Back Cover

My name is Victoria Spring.
Sometimes I hate people.
This is probably very bad for my mental health.

Tori has friends. She has brothers. She has parents. Sometimes she can be bothered to talk to them. Most of the time, though, she would prefer not to have to deal with other people.

Until the day she follows a trail of Post-its from her locker to a deserted computer lab, where she finds a message from a mysterious group called Solitaire. It's also where she meets Michael Holden. Irrepressibly cheerful, weird, and determined to be her friend, Michael is everything Tori normally hates.

And that's it. That's where it starts.

Soon Solitaire has launched a series of pranks across the school. For once, Tori feels connected, like someone is on her wavelength—making jokes about her favorite movies, blasting her favorite song on repeat over the intercom. Then Solitaire's pranks start to go too far, and no one else seems to be concerned. Tori doesn't like getting involved. But this time, the idea of doing nothing is even worse.

Solitaire is a novel about finding friends, finding yourself, and discovering that one person can change everything.

About the Author

Alice Oseman was born in 1994 in Kent, England. She completed a degree in English at Durham University in 2016 and is currently a full-time writer and illustrator. Alice can usually be found staring aimlessly at computer screens, questioning the meaninglessness of existence, or doing anything and everything to avoid getting an office job. Find out more about Alice and her books at www.aliceoseman.com.

Title: Solitaire

Author: Alice Oseman

Synopsis (from Goodreads): In case you’re wondering, this is not a love story. My name is Tori Spring. I like to sleep, and I like to blog. Last year – before all that stuff with Charlie and before I had to face the harsh realities of A-Levels and university applications and the fact that one day I really will have to start talking to people – I had friends. Things were very different, I guess, but that’s all over now. Now there’s Solitaire. And Michael Holden. I don’t know what Solitaire are trying to do, and I don’t care about Michael Holden. I really don’t.

Rating: 4/5 stars

Beware, the following review will contain some spoilers!

I really enjoyed reading this book in the last few days. I didn’t expect the story to be like this, in fact I was quite surprised about what happened in there!

I think that the plot was pretty cool, I started it thinking it was just about Tori, her life, her struggles, her friends, Charlie and Nick and so on. But, in addition to that, there’s also a mystery! Not the kind of guess-who-killed-someone mystery, ok, but it’s still something that needs to be solved. I’m talking about Solitaire’s blog and the many things that happen around Tori. Someone is trying really hard to impress her by doing many different things. And the mind behind was none other than Lucas. It was a bit obvious; I was unsure if it was Michael or him, but in the end, I was 90% sure it was Lucas.

Talking about Michael, I loved him so much. He was so adorable and peculiar, I got along with him immediately. He was a bit funny sometimes, but still lovely. And I was so excited that he and Tori ended up together! They are one of my new favourite ships (even though Nick and Charlie are still in the first place, no doubts).

I have to admit that I started reading this book because I was curious to know more about Nick and Charlie. Heartstopper is such an adorable and amazing graphic novel, it’s quite obvious that I would be so interested in knowing more. Well, their story wasn’t all easy peasy lemon squeezy at all. In the graphic novel the author is still introducing the main challenge that Charlie will face in Solitaire. It was hard to read about his disorder, really hard. I hope he will feel better in the future. And with Tori on his side I’m sure he will have all the help he needs.

Last but not least, Tori. I got along with her really well since the beginning. Maybe because sometimes I feel like her or maybe it’s because of this quarantine, I don’t know, but I felt what she felt for almost the entire book. And her relationship with Michael was adorable. I so loved them!

So, these are my opinions about this book, hope you liked reading it! If you would like to let me know your own thoughts about the novel or you would like to talk about what I said in this review, leave a comment down below! Thanks.

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