Solitaire by Alice Oseman
BIBLIOGRAPHIC DETAILS:
PRINT: COPYRIGHT: 3/5/2018; PUBLISHER: HarperCollins Children's Books; ISBN 9780007559220; PAGES 288; Unabridged

DIGITAL: Yes (ePub format)

*AUDIO: COPYRIGHT: 3/31/2015; ISBN: 9780062390349; PUBLISHER: HarperCollins; DURATION: 09:22:18; PARTS: 8; File Size: 269980 KB; Unabridged
Feature Film or tv: No

SOURCE: Overdrive (LAPL)

SERIES: NA

CHARACTERS: (Not comprehensive)
Torri Spring
Charlie Spring
Nick Nelson
Lucas
Becky
Michael Holden

SUMMARY/ EVALUATION:
How I picked it: I did a search on my favorite narrator, Jayne Entwistle, and then looked for a stand-alone book (i.e., not part of a series)
What’s it about? Teenager’s emotions, doubts, and self-loathing.
What did I think? It seemed like a reasonable plot. My teenage years were quite tame, but that was ages ago. This seems somewhat believable. It kept my riveted.

AUTHOR: Alice Oseman
From Wikipedia – “(born 16 October 1994)[1] is an English author of young adult fiction. She[a] secured her first publishing deal at 17, and had her first novel Solitaire published in 2014.[2] Her novels include Radio Silence, I Was Born for This, and Loveless. She wrote and illustrated the webcomic Heartstopper, which has been published as multiple graphic novels and which she adapted into a TV series, earning her two Children's and Family Emmy Awards as both a writer and producer. Her novels focus on contemporary teenage life in the UK and have received the Inky Awards.”
Ohhh. So, this was her first novel. Well done.

NARRATOR: Jayne Entwistle
From AudiofileMagazine__ “Before Jayne Entwistle became an improvisational actress and voice-over artist, she earned a graduate degree in counseling. It has helped her understand motivation, and, she says, it proved invaluable when she played the crazy mother of a serial killer. “I used a clinical diagnosis to build that character.”
Nothing so scientific was needed for FIRST IMPRESSIONS, Charlie Lovett’s recent mystery about a missing manuscript, although Entwistle had to voice modern and eighteenth-century characters, including Jane Austen. When reading the Austen scenes, Entwistle says, “I imagined that she walked ramrod straight, which helped me shape how she sounds.” The protagonist in the contemporary sections is more relaxed, so Entwistle smiled more, changing the sound. The result earned her an Earphones Award, which delighted her as much as the book had. “I love books. The book is about loving books. So narrating was just a big loving-of-books-fest.”
Speaking of bibliophile passion, for the last seven years Entwistle has narrated Alan Bradley’s series about 11-year-old scientist-sleuth Flavia de Luce. “Each year I can’t wait to get back to the characters. I feel that we’re all living together in some alternate universe. The challenge is that I want to do the absolute best job and be true to the voices that I created to begin with.”
When a new Flavia book or any other audio assignment arrives (on her iPad now, instead of in a “lovely thick envelope”), she reads it through, highlighting words whose pronunciation she needs to look up. Using a different color, she highlights a character’s first appearance and records it-- for example, “Clarence Mundy, page 12”--in her notebook. In a third color, she underlines such phrases as “he whispered in a fierce voice” so that she’ll remember to whisper fiercely. And finally, she types in characters’ names just before they appear so that she’s prepared for changes in voice.
Once in the recording booth with water and hot tea, she tries not to cry during sad scenes. “Sometimes I have to dig my fingers into my leg to make myself stop!” She remembers the lessons of her first audiobook director, Janet Stark, who showed her “when to know that it’s time to give the listener a rest and how a tiny bit of air [a pause] can let an image sink in.
“Narrating has taught me a lot about pace, modulating my voice, how to shape the action. If someone is creeping down a hallway, you want the reader to feel what it’s like to hide in the shadows. Learning how to do that has helped my acting.”
And vice versa. Recently, author Alan Bradley emailed her to say that “not a day goes by without someone raving to him about the audiobooks.” She sighs happily. “Now isn’t that nice?”--Aurelia C. Scott”

GENRE:
Romance; Young Adult Fiction; Young Adult Literature

TIME FRAME:
Present day

SUBJECTS:
teenagers, school, social media, anarchy, romance, self-doubt, loneliness, pessimism, anorexia, self-wounding, approval addiction, suicidal, LGBTQ

RATING:
4 stars

STARTED READING – FINISHED READING
12-16-2022 to 12-21-2022 ( )

4.5 i love tori spring ( )

Kids these days.

This is Alice Ossman's first book, and she was only 17 when she wrote it (and basically, she was born after I graduated from university), so it's no wonder I don't like it as much as I like her book Loveless. Loveless is wonderful. It feels the feels… and it’s one of her more recent books.

Imagine having a high school teacher who looks like Alan Rickman! Apparently that has a quite different connotation to someone young enough to be my daughter, as opposed to someone close to my age. See the 1990s film adaptation of Sense and Sensibility, and you'll understand. Probably.

"Everything in this room is pink and black and if it were a person it'd be a Kardashian on a middle income (p. 94)." ( )

Since I have read most of Oseman's other work, it was fascinating to read the story that started it all. As Oseman states, this story is very different from her other ones, though I would argue that Radio Silence is closest in style.

For people with mental illness, this is a novel to be careful with when reading. Tori is very dark for most of it, which can be difficult to handle on rough days. However, I can also appreciate how having her darkness can be a good representation for those who need it.

I enjoyed the story, but I did keep hoping that Tori would lighten up. This is not my favorite story in the Heartstopper/Solitare universe, but I do like the insight it gives into Tori. ( )

4.5 stars rounded up
I loved getting to know a few of the other characters in the Nick and Charlie world. I’m definitely more sympathetic to Tori now (not that I wasn’t before, but I loved getting to know her better). ( )