Heartstopper, Vol. 5 Alice Oseman

And here we are again with everyone’s favorite gay high school teens. While I loved leaping back into the saga of Nick and Charlie and their friends, I did feel that for much of this volume we were, dramatically, treading water with the story. We have now reached the stage where the major situations, traumas and conflicts have, to a degree been if not resolved, then are at least on a reasonably even keel. In the previous volumes, the stakes for Charlie and Nick were much higher. Each was coming to terms with their own sexuality, they were working out their feelings for each other and they had to do this in a social fishbowl that was their school. Moreover, there was no guarantee that the outcomes would be good. In addition, looming over it all, is the backstory of Charlie’s bullied life at school in the year before this story began and his ongoing anorexia issues. And of course we must not forget the situation with both sets of parents, always there in the background and providing another area that has to be carefully negotiated, by both of them.

So in this volume the main foci are on their future and university plans and whether they will go to the same university, as well as exploring sexuality within their relationship. All this is done with characteristic sensitivity and occasional wit but while these are central issues to the characters, after what has happened in the past, they can seem slightly more trivial. One of the most successful episodes was towards the end where Charlie managed to make a public appearance (as a drummer) but without Nick there (although he was meant to be). His success with this was a significant one and a very good way of showing his increasing strength and self-confidence, and realizing that he did not always have to have Nick there for him to be at ease with himself.

It’s good I think that the next volume will be the final one and it will be interesting to see to what extent, if any, the future for both of them is clear. I am rather hoping for some degree of ambiguity.