Heartstopper: Volume Two

I enjoyed this volume much more than the first one, and I really started to warm to the characters. I actually wonder if Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 ought to have been one volume. I know it would have been a bit chonky, but I think splitting them has done them a disservice (although, given it's raging popularity, I guess not, so what do I know?). For me, Vol. 1 didn't compel me enough to keep reading; I only pushed onto Vol. 2 because the Netflix series looked quite good.

I think some of the messaging is a bit heavy handed and has a bit of an “in a very special episode of...“/after-school-special kind of vibe to it, but there's enough charm there to prevent it from being too cloying. And as a quote-unquote grown-up queer, it's refreshing to see a young queer romance and coming-out story that still has all that anxiety and friction and confusion, without the excessive trauma of older stories of this nature, even if I think it could have been written a bit more elegantly. I'm definitely here for the queer and trans joy.

Still not in love with the art style itself, but I do admire and value Oseman's ability to capture meaningful moments and emotions without words, which takes advantage of the medium quite nicely. I'm surprised at how many graphic novels I've read that seem to forget that they can show instead of tell, and Heartstopper is definitely not one of them. I really enjoy that.