Book Review: Heartstopper Volume #4

It's very rare experience for me where each entry in a book series builds upon and offers an even better level of quality. That being said, Alice Oseman is on an amazing roll with the Heatstopper series.

Where we left off with Charlie and Nick, they had just had a wonderful trip to Paris and came out officially to their family and friends. Now the fear of their relationship being public knowledge is behind them, Nick and Charlie face the next challenge in their relationship' Charlie's mental health. As they further seek to define the relationship Nick struggles with finding a way to support and help Charlie with his eating disorder and other mental health issues Meanwhile Charlie struggles to open up to his family about the mental health issues at Nick's pleas.

I really love the narrative element of this volume. It's easily the most mature and introspective entry in the series so far. The way it examines how mental health and romantic relationships coincide is exceptionally real and it's given a very respectful and grounded tone. As someone who suffers from mental health, seeing the way Oseman centres this story around the complicated nature behind it is wonderful to see. She does it in such a respectful way as well, one thing I've come to learn from my own experiences is as much as we hope the relationships we share with our significant others can help erase our mental problems, the reality is far from true. Mental health is a something we can only heal by self-care and we can't expect our partners to provide the healing remedy but just be there to offer their support and love in our journeys to cope with it. This reality is put on display beautifully in Charlie and Nick's story and I adore how much it nails their journey through it in a sweet and endearing manner.

That maturity that is so prevalent in the narrative isn't the only place it's reflected. I think the illustrative work in this entry is incredibly emotive and expressive. After so many years of drawing these characters I imagine by this point Oseman nailed down her distinct art style. What's nice is she show's the change in tone and maturity so easily during a lot of the sequences she's drawn. The use of speech boxes and comic strips is so unique in this entry and it all compliments the more grounded tone the story is trying to take easily.

Volume 4 is easily the best and most mature entry in the Heartstopper series and I know it feels like I keep saying this with every new entry I read but I think that's just a testament to the quality of Alice Oseman's writing and illustrations. She understands relationships and all the messy and complicated aspects behind them. This story while clearly targeted towards a queer audience has so much value that any type of couple can relate to. There's a great sense of wonder and joy in this story but it also treats the deeper and more emotional moments with so much care and respect that it's easy to relate with it on so many levels