Tori is nearing the end of her pre-university education at a largely all-girls private school (the oldest two years are coed) and she has almost completely lost interest in everything — her "friends," her schoolwork, anything outside of her blog, really. But then a post-it note with an arrow on it leads her to "Solitaire," a prankster/blog that disrupts her school in sometimes humorous, sometimes wild ways. And then there's Michael Holden, a new transfer who is weird in some of the same ways Tori is, though she can't seem to figure out why anyone would find her interesting enough to be friends with.
Written before (but released in the U.S. after) Oseman's lovely boy-meets-boy graphic novel romance Heartstopper, the book focuses on the sister of one of Heartstopper's protagonists, and the events of this book happen concurrently to the graphic novel. But this is a much darker story, with disaffected teens thinking dark thoughts. Heartstopper tackles some pretty tough topics, and so does Solitaire, though the way they're handled is a bit different, as Tori deals with things alone. It's not always an easy book to read, though it's definitely a worthwhile use of your time.
