Heartstopper: Volume Four
Ratings432
Average rating4.5
Les trois premiers volumes de Heartstopper nous plongeaient dans une romance très mignonne entre deux adolescents anglais, entouré de leurs adorables amis. Ce quatrième volume poursuit sur cette lancée tout en approfondissant le propos. Autour de l'histoire d'amour toujours très mignonne entre Charlie et Nick, Alice Oseman nous propose également, et surtout, un récit sur la santé mentale, à travers les troubles du comportement alimentaire de Charlie. Nous assistons au difficile chemin emprunté par Charlie pour trouver de l'aide et essayer d'aller mieux, lentement, pas à pas. Nous suivons également Nick qui tente d'aider son petit ami mais se retrouve souvent impuissant malgré tout l'amour qu'il éprouve pour Charlie.
J'ai bien aimé le message porté par l'autrice dans ce quatrième volume : l'amour ne suffit pas à guérir face à des problèmes de santé mentale, il faut être entouré de sa famille, de ses amis, et de professionnels. C'est un long chemin semé d'embuches, pas toujours à sens unique, et qui prend du temps.
Tykkään tästä tyylistä edelleen. Sopivan yksinkertaista, mutta silti pienet yksityiskohdat tekevät siitä viimeistellyn näköisen. Tässä osassa käsitellään paljon tärkeitä asioita kuten tunteiden ilmaisua, syömishäiriötä, perhesuhteita ja paljon muuta.
Me encanta la manera en que la autora tocó el tema de la salud mental. Mediante los diarios de Nick y Charlie se narra la manera en la que un trastorno se desarrolla y cómo es la etapa del recovery, incluso poniendo énfasis en que, a pesar de que un trastorno como la anorexia en el libro fue retratado un período de cuatro meses en internamiento, realmente es mucho más complejo que eso y puede tardar tanto mucho menos como mucho más.
This volume focus on Charlie's eating disorder. I thought it to be very educational for teenagers who are going through the similar situation, specially that the author has demonstrated through the story the importance of creating a support network with Nick and Charlie looking for the support of their parents, specialist in the field, teachers and friends. That is an important message for teenagers, that tend to try to solve things by themselves, which can be dangerous for their health and potentially harmful to their relationship. At the end, as they sought for support, neither of them got emotionally overwhelmed and their relationship became stronger. Very wise!
So...I do appreciate that there's talk of mental health and anorexia - especially considering that this is not a format that I usually see either in. (Not just comics, but MLM romances.) But... The reason I got so attached to season one and the first volume or two of the comics was because of how soft, low stress they were. (I mean, even the bad stuff was tempered with the soft, everything is going to be fine vibe.) Season two of the show completely lost that feeling for me and the comics have been slowly loosing that feel as well.
Don't get me wrong, they're good, the show is so important and I am so, so thrilled with the good bi (male bi realization, especially) rep we get. But, being honest, if the story had started here with all the big deal issues being at the forefront, I probably would have quickly dropped it.
(Side note: there is also way too much time jumped over in this story and a lot of ‘recap' text instead of actually seeing it happen. Season three of the show should be interesting, because they covered a little out of this volume, but most of it was Charlie's health taking the forefront and the show hasn't fully delved into that yet.)
Alice Oseman se supera cada vez mas y en este libro demuestra el gran talento que tiene, ame demasiado este libro y aunque la saga en general tiene un espacio en mi corazon este libro hasta ahora es el que ocupa mas espacio, fue muy tierno y hermoso y con temas muy bien tratados lo cual me hace amarlo más
Once again a beautiful book with amazing representation of both queer experience and mental illness issues.
read for the tarot readathon 2023: the starweekly significator (the emperor)
these last two volumes have really done something for me
[Relectura]
“Love can't cure a mental illnes... [-H-how then?] Well.. there are los of ways. You can be there. To listen. To talk. To cheer him up if he's having a bad day. And on the bad days.. You can ask what you could do To make things easier. Standing by his side, even when things are hard- But also know that.. sometime people need more support that just one person can give. That's love, darling.”
4/4.5
my favorite one so far
“Anyone who doesn't accept you for you is officially cancelled from your life.”
hugs for Darcy <3
“I realized that people can be going through stuff... and you just have NO idea.”
“-I don't know what to do. I don't know how to fix it.
+Maybe you can't, darling.”
loved the talk Nick's mom had with him about Charlie's mental illness.
“Love can't cure a mental illness.”
“Standing by his side, even when things are hard, but also knowing that... sometimes people need more support than just one person can give. that's love, darling.”
Paris squad forever <333 altho I wish we knew more about Sahar and I absolutely wish there was more about Aled in the story; anyways I'm glad he's in the series.
also,
Tara and Darcy's relationship T-T goals
“Geoff says I'm making progress, but I think I'm realizing now that there might never be an ‘end'. This could be something that will always be there in the back of my mind, waiting to emerge again and bring all the bad feelings back.”
I'm definitely not a pro and I might be wrong, but I think the info and the tips about the mental illnesses (especially ED) can be helpful for some people, and I like the fact that the author put websites' names there for anyone who wants to read more about those.
“-Wanna come around and hang out with Henry tomorrow?
+pfft, are dog cuddles your solution to everything?
-pretty much, yeah.”
and with this, I couldn't agree more:
“I love Nick. I love Nick so, so much. but what I've realized through all of this is that we need other people too.”
I've read all four currently available volumes even though Oseman is so very intent on being all inclusive at every turn (Look! This picture has one of everything in it! There's a gay boy and a lesbian and a trans girl and .....) But the story is delightful and well told and well worth reading.
4.5, but for Goodreads purposes I'll give it a five. I appreciate how well Alice Oseman wrote about Charlie's struggles and the reality of mental health issues in a serious, but lighthearted enough way that it got it's point across without being too triggering. Maybe it is just me, but reading about mental health struggles isn't my top choice in literature, which is why I can't give this book five stars. Also, I assume it was a byproduct of Charlie's deteriorating mental health coupled with Nick's anxiety about how to help him, but I did see signs of codependency early on that I did not enjoy too much. Maybe it was that, or something else, but there were parts that I felt lost the “Nick and Charlie magic”.
Either way, I loved how supportive everyone is, how Nick got the opportunity to tell off his dad and brother, and how Charlie and Nick realized that they can't only rely on each other and a network is essential when dealing with something like this.
Very well crafted.
This has been my favourite volume of Heartstopper so far, which is saying a lot because I've loved every single one.
What makes this volume stand out to me is the nuanced way it deals with mental illness in teenagers. It's a frank depiction and it doesn't skim over the ugly parts of mental illness the way a lot of other YA fiction has a tendency to do. I also thought the book did a good job of illustrating the complexities of being the partner of someone with a mental illness.
This one is an easy five star rating as far as I'm concerned.
Format read: ebook (Libby)
Reading time: 50 minutes
Tags: romance, lgbtq+, high school, slice of life
Own a copy: no
Reread likelihood: 2/10
Mmm... As much as I liked the first 3 volumes, this one wasn't for me. I found it much too melodramatic and lacking in realism. The fact that Charlie and Nick are 15 and 16 years old, respectively, makes their relationship a bit too ‘extra' at times. Plus, things took a sharp turn from the lightheartedness of the previous books with Charlie's mental deterioration and Nick's desperate attempts to ‘save' him.
Others might find this topic interesting, but it's not to my taste.
Really well written and sensitive depiction of mental illness and recovery. It isn't linear and this shows that well. Perfect as always.
So, as I mentioned when I first read these, I enjoyed them, but I didn't love them like everybody else seemed to. I thought they were all cute and sweet, but I let the hype get to me a little bit.
Then came the adaptation. If you haven't read my thoughts on the Netflix adaptation you can do so by clicking here but in summary watching it is what fully immersed me in the story. It brought it to life for me. The adaptation pretty much followed the graphic novels word for word with a few minor differences.
When I reread it the second time, I loved it so much more than I did the first time. It's so hard to explain how much of difference there was for me between reads. Everything was just amplified in a sense. Ugh I feel like I am not doing this series justice because I am horrible at putting my thoughts into words especially when I loved something as much as I did this series.
I've never had a comfort read book/series, but this has definitely become that for me even though it deals with heavy topics it does it in a way that is hopeful, and I just love it. I can't wait for the 5th vol to come out but at the same time I am sad because I don't want Nick and Charlies story to ever end.
I think i would've liked it more as a book than a graphic novel. Describing mental illness through speech bubbles makes it all superficial, can't say I felt any of the angst. Don't want to be too cynical on here, cause i know I'm not the target audience, but like we get it they love each other and all lgbt people are perfect and very wise.
Omg, this book was a lot heavier than I expected it to be. But I thought it was handled well. While I did hope for full on fluffy cute pages for the duration of the book I was glad it took a more realistic approach to loge in general. I did almost cry twice, but let's not talk about that.
Vol 4 is now tied with vol 2 as my favorite and I cannot wait to see what happens in the 5th (and unfortunately last) installment!!
This was such a touching and heart felt instalment in the series.
I love Nick's mum and Charlie's sister!
I want this author to win. I want them to continue winning.
This is such a great series. I love the art. I love the storytelling. I love the family dynamics (not perfect at all but realistic). I love their love and patience and understanding and growth and and and and...
My heart breaks for Charlie. He is going through it all and I actually don't like that he has to take on so much of the struggles that exist in our world today. There are enough characters in the book that can speak to these struggles... but that's just one opinion. He's a good kid. I just want him to be happy.