10/08/19: Reread for the #aliceosemanreadathon. After binge reading all three of her novels back to back, I'm pretty sure this is my favourite?? I know, I'm just as surprised as you (I've got a feeling Loveless is going to overtake this next year, but I'll bask in this for now)


17/07/18: First read.


content warnings: transphobia, biphobia, panic attacks, hospitalisation, character injury (broken leg and stab wound), alcoholism, parents kicking their kid out
representation: hijabi muslim iranian protagonist, transgender gay biracial (indian-italian) protagonist with anxiety, nigerian main character, bisexual main character, biracial (chinese-white) bisexual main character

“It’s such an interesting concept to think about. People think boy-band fangirls all just want to kiss the boy-band boys and marry them and live happily ever after. Whereas if you actually asked a lot of fangirls, they probably wouldn’t even say that they had a crush on the boy-band boys. It’s a different sort of love, to be honest. It’s an I’d probably take a bullet for you but I’d probably feel a bit weird we just started kissing sort of love. Add that to the fact that there’s an extremely high percentage of LGBT+ people in fandom, particularly queer girls, usually because it’s a much more diverse and accepting space than real life, then the percentage of fangirls who are in it because Lister’s soooo hot is actually quite small. And that’s just one of the many things that outsiders don’t get about fandom.”

Alice Oseman has done it again. You can definitely expect this to end up being one of my favourite books of the year. The only downside is that Solitaire now needs to meet some pretty high expectations and I'm pretty sure it won't.

I loved everything about this book. The writing, the characters, the diversity, the dialogue, everything.

First, writing. I don't really know what to say other than that I loved it. One thing I really liked is how fluidly the references are incorporated and the fact that there aren't an overwhelming amount, something which practically guarantees that this book isn't going to become dated for at least a few decades. Also, Alice Oseman has this incredible way of putting into words what panic attacks feel like and how self-loathing is, in a way that I've never seen before, and I want to sincerely thank her for that because her books now have a track record of making me feel understood.

Next, characters. First of all, somehow Lister and Bliss became my faves, something which I definitely didn't expect going in. Even still, I genuinely loved each and every character. I'm not sure why, but a part of me was expecting Angel to be a shy introvert, which she definitely isn't, and it was kind of refreshing to see a teenage girl in YA who's awkward but is also really talkative and outgoing. Jimmy, I think, will always hold such a special place in my heart for being one of the first character's who I truly connected to on a mental-health basis. So many of his thoughts almost perfectly mirror mine to a scary degree. I honestly could write entire essays about how much I love all the other characters but I'll just let you know once again that I love all of them.

A minor note, but I'm pretty sure that Alice Oseman has some very good relationships with the elderly people in her life because there are several elderly people in this book that were absolute delights. Jimmy's grandad and Juliet's grandma were the stand-outs, of course, but there was also the woman who tripped the paparazzi, the taxi driver, the woman who was talking about god on the tube, and so many others. Idk, I just really liked reading about a lot of delightful elderly side characters

I love platonic relationships and this book is full of them. Juliet and Angel, Jimmy and Rowan, Jimmy and Lister, Jimmy and Rowan and Lister, Angel and Bliss. I also love familial relationships, something which this book is also full of. I just... ugh, I just really love when books have little-to-no focus on romance and are instead about other relationships.

Finally, the discussions in this book on fandom were spectacular. One of my biggest praises of Radio Silence was the way it looked at fandom in a very nuanced way i.e. there are both the fans that are really cool and the small majority who will stalk the person they "love" and make them genuinely fear for their safety. This book somehow did that even better. It has discussion of shipping real people, of famous people being entitled to privacy, of other peoples' perceptions of fandom (particularly boy band fandom), all while undoubtedly being a book in full support of fandom.