Ron Does Stuff

Yes, I am aware that the YouTube video is still the triler for the first volume, but there aren’t any book trailers for the second volume. And yes, I know I said that I didn’t seem to be the audience for the first volume of the book in my review of it, but i also said that doesn’t mean I wasn’t entertained by the book. So here we are at Volume 2!

At the end of the first volume, we saw Charlie anxiously thinking about the kiss that happened between him and Nick. It’s a little bit like what happened between him and Ben, so Charlie really is right to worry.

And boy does Charlie worry, the diary entry has words underlined and I get you Charlie. If there’s one thing that the Heartstopper comics capture well in my opinion it’s teenage anxiety.

Just like the first volume, I recognize these emotions and these fantasies of an idealized world where the straight-ish guy falls for you. And even if I was just a few years younger — not even in my teens younger — I would have loved this so much. But while I still feel my heart flutter a but and I am still entertained, I still can’t fully get into it, which I am attributing to me being in a different place in my life now rather than any failing on the part of the book.

But then it’s Nick Nelson and where Alice Oseman takes him that catches me off guard and actually starts effectively tugging at my emotions. Just like Nick, it took me a long time to come to terms with myself. Living in a Catholic country hasn’t helped. But it’s also the fact that in my experience at least, bisexual stories like Nick’s don’t get told as much as gay ones, and I not only recognize the importance of that but I am also unexpectedly moved by it.

When it comes to that climactic coming out scene with Nick’s mother, I legitimately teared up and clutched my chest and everything. And it’s not like I haven’t seen or read a coming out scene before! But seeing a bisexual coming out after getting a lot of either gay coming out scenes or “gay just for this one person” scenes was both refreshing and moving for me. It really elevated the story for me and made me look forward to the other volumes!