Spoilery Book Reviews

Solitaire by Alice Oseman

Back of the book

"I don't ever remember not being serious. As far as I'm concerned, I came out of the womb spouting cynicism and wishing for rain."

My name is Tori Spring. I like to sleep and I like to blog. Last year I had friends. Things were 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.

My thoughts.

Disclaimer: I knew that any book I read after Yellowface would be a bit of a let-down. I know that reading experience has tampered with my expectations (setting the bar super high!).

Disclaimer 2: I have the edited/updated Solitaire, not the original print.

The only way I can appreciate Solitaire is I know it speaks to my teenage self. I am not that person anymore, but if I discovered this book when I was a teenager, I think I would have liked it a lot. Today, not so much.

The writing style is not bad, it's simplistic and easy to read. It reads like the teenager herself wrote it, which can be an artistic choice in how to voice a story, but I didn't love it. Reading can be magical, with clever metaphors, witty similes and sentences that run on too long that leave you breathless to really impart how the character feels in that high tension moment. I didn't find this writing style magical. Tori's main personality trait is apathy and I can respect the writing as a choice on how to represent her tone and personality, but aside from that it is lacklustre.

It's hard to care about a characters' life when they don't care about it themselves. This book reeks of depression but that word is never used (that I can recall) and only near the end does the character admit to not wanting to be alive and wanting to be dead. Mostly she goes on and on about not caring. Picking it apart further, I see that not caring is a defence mechanism against getting hurt when life goes wrong. This concept is not handled well. Tori doesn't care as part of her depression, and reverts to not caring when she messes up a budding friendship. Even when Tori does care, her actions never result in a meaningful reward that could give the message: caring is better, even when it hurts you.

The main themes of this book are undiagnosed depression, isolation during teenage years and low self-esteem. I don't feel it handles these themes well, rather swims around in them without imparting a moral message. I would have connected to this story during my teenage years because I felt a similar way and might not have noticed a lack of moral messaging. Looking upon this story now, the themes are handled clumsily and never accurately impart their true moral. It tries, but I don't think it does a very good job. Perhaps I am expecting too much from this book after the brilliant masterpiece I just read. To back up my argument, I can think of examples of young adult books that tackle these issues in a way I feel is meaningful. (I will read them next to dissect what they did well)

I don't recommend this book to read, as I feel there are other young adult books out there that cover the main themes in this story better. If you are an apathetic, moderately depressed teenager then this book may speak to you, although it still might not be enjoyable. I can see what this book wishes to achieve, a voice about finding a way to care about your life, humanise the people around you and be true to yourself to find your real friends. I don't think it succeeds in sending this message very well. Books I enjoy either impart an important message well, or are a joy to read, and Solitaire hit neither of these targets for me.

TL:DR

A story about a teenager who doesn't care, a secret organisation creating benign chaos coincidentally targeting her, until it goes too far. This was not a joy to read, and other books handle the main themes with better moral impact.