'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 – before all that stuff with Charlie and before I had to face the harsh realities of A-Levels and university applications and the fact that one day I really will have to start talking to people – I had friends. Things were very 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.
This is a book I have owned since it came out, many years ago. So many years ago, I do not remember why I brought it. Well, probably because it says it's not a Love story and even then I hated the fact that every book seemed to be a love story at it's centre and they were often very bad.
This book is more about friendship than romantic love, but it's also sort of there. We also have sibling relationships and as well as dealing with being a family with a sick sibling, which from my experience was done pretty well.
The way mental health is dealt with in this book is so great. If you're someone who wants to know nothing then leave this paragraph now. I related to Tori hating everything because I too kinda hated everything when I was seventeen and then I realise that this book was slowly showing beginning to related even more to my seventeen old self in an important way. It's done so fucking well. It's remind me of my slow dive into that state of numbness and then mixed in with the guilt because wasn't allowed to be sick. But haha that doesn't stop it.
I've seen others hate on the mental illness rep and the fact the main character is a teenager. Tori is shitty person, most teenagers are, I think that's pretty realistic to the story. Reading other reviews is interesting because you can see where other people get real hanged up on.
The plot is about this website called Solitaire.com that is playing planks on the Grammar School that Tori goes to. It used to drive the characters interactions with each other to figure out whose behind it/why. With the plot description, it might seem like a thriller but it's really not, especially it's usually going on in the background. The focus is very much on the characters and their relationships together.
In terms of rep, we have Queer supporting characters as well as the mental health side. It sort of comes into the plot, but it's realistic and fine besides that. They function for the most part like a straight couple. There's also autistic feel to some characters, not saying they meant to be coded autistic but you could read them that way.
Overall, I give this book 5/5 stars for soft muttering. I related to this book a lot so I really loved it. I don't know if I liked it so much because I related to it so much, but I think either way it was done pretty well. In terms of her other books, I like this book better than Radio Silence. They have similar themes/issues and I think it works better in this one. I'm doing an review of Radio Silence so I talk about it there. Both are good, but I think this one was better, I also get why that might be a me thing. This book does have issues, but I like intention over all.
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