catcardoso's reviews
220 reviews

I missed these characters it was so nice to read more about them

It was funny and cute at times but definitely think it would be more enjoyable on screen

Wow. First of all I just want to thank Sally Rooney for writing this incredible book.

Despite the fact that I didn’t love all the characters, I was still interested in them and the dynamics between them. This is all because of the incredible job Sally Rooney did as an author. I’m not sure whether the email chapters were just a way for Sally to discuss her political / economical / social (and much more) views, but I also don’t think it really matters. And don’t all authors project some of their views or experiences of the world in their books in some way or another? I learned so much about myself and the world reading this book and that wasn’t because she pushed “life lessons” into our faces. Instead I found that she did it in a way that didn’t manipulate the reader to agree or think a certain way at all. It was very much an open discussion, which I appreciated and it made me participate in the discourse in my mind (at times I stopped reading just to think about the topics on hand or texted my friend to discuss them).

I’ve heard people mention how depressing they found this book to be and I’d like to say that I actually found it very hopeful. The characters aren’t perfect nor happy all the time but the message of this book is that you can find happiness at any time at any age of your life (I think there are definitely more ways to think about this than just my interpretation).

A lot of people criticize Sally for writing too many details and say that she focuses too much on insignificant things. I think you wouldn’t make that argument if you’ve read this book cause that’s exactly the point she is trying to make. That even though there are more important things to worry about (and to write about) our lives are happening right now with the people around us and that’s what we live for. Things that may seem small and insignificant are part of everything we live and care for. And precisely her attention to detail makes the story feel so real. I felt like an observer watching these people live their lives instead of a reader. When I first started reading her books I was so confused by the lack of quotation marks but now I completely get it and applaud her for doing so. She has the ability to give her characters such distinct voices which makes it really easy to differentiate the characters and know who is speaking.

That being said, I wouldn’t necessarily say I “enjoyed” this book, or any of her books for that matter. And im not sure if they’re even supposed to be enjoyable. It surely made me think and feel a lot. And I’m so thankful that this book exists.

4,5 stars* I hold this story so dear to my heart, but I'm refraining myself from giving it 5 stars since I wasn't satisfied with the whole book. I'd love to just put the book under a magnifying glass and have more little moments with each character if that makes sense. I feel like it was hard at times to get really attached to the characters and found myself wishing the author slowed the pace of the book a little bit. I'm a sucker for slow paced character driven stories and I just really wish there was more to it. For instance more bonding time between Laurie and Jo, learning more about Jo's love for writing and just in general a more in depth view of the characters. Overall, I can't help but love this book and the writing a lot <3

EDIT: I’ve heard that Alice has made some changes to this book to make it less problematic and I haven’t read this newer version yet. My thoughts were solely based on the first published one! I’m so glad Alice adds warnings and made some necessary edits, I will read the changed version once I get a new copy!

I've heard that Solitaire isn't Alice Oseman's best book and I was well aware of that going into it. I still wanted to read this because I've loved Alice's other books a lot and I was interested to see the writing development. I'm just going to write some thoughts down because I wish I knew some of these things before picking the book up...

First of all there are trigger/content warnings for suicide attempts/suicidal thoughts/eating disorder/fire/self-harm/depression? (this is not clearly stated but it's sort of hinted towards depression I suppose ).

It's clear that Tori is a very pessimist and I was interested to read from her perspective. I get that some people might relate to someone like Tori and her thought process but there are some things I really hated reading about, like her describing how she wished she had a gun to shoot people and how things made her want to commit suicide and slit her wrists like?? Is this supposed to be a representation of depression?? Isn't that extremely harmful?? Especially because it went on and on throughout the entire book...
It also bothered me how she talked about Charlie self harming and attempting suicide like it was normal. I get that this book is about her not Charlie but those are serious topics to talk about. When talking about mental health you have to be careful and you can't just throw words around because this could be really harmful to people reading it.

Tori also kept calling people "mental" and "crazy". Again HOW can a book supposedly about mental health throw around words that could potentially be harmful?? I understand it's all part of Tori's character but it was never addressed besides the fact that she falls in love with the person she thought was "mental" like is that supposed to make it right?? I honestly don't know what the point was of making her say such rude and problematic things if it wasn't to address them eventually.

Other comments that bothered me a lot were "he sounds like an 8 year old girl" and "but you were so normal" what does that even mean??? She kept using "Im a bad person" as an excuse for literally everything and ended up not even having that much character development... She just fell in love and suddenly decided she would change? Or wouldn't change?? I honestly still don't get where this book was trying to go...

The tagline of this book is "this is not a love story" it kinda is though...
It would be an entirely different story if this book was actually centred around mental health and Tori having those thoughts and also dealing with her brother going through a lot. But none of that was really addressed. Or not in a good way at least. It honestly felt like a really harmful and problematic mental health representation since these serious topics were handled like they were just "normal teenage things".

I don't know if I made any sense basically this book just confused me a lot. I'm glad I like Alice's Oseman's newer books because this really wasn't it for me.