Ron Does Stuff

Okay, when I started reading this series I thought it was only a total of five volumes. Which is kinda true because there are only five volumes out now, but there’s a sixth and final volume that’s still to come out. So it kinda messed with my feelings at the end of the book, which I know is a little unfair. Let’s dive into what else I felt about the book!

I figured out in my review of Volume 4 that I only seem to like the even-numbered books in the collection but that I had hope for this odd-numbered volume because at the time, I thought it was the concluding book in the series. I thought the cliffhanger would lead into action from the characters and we’d get a wrap of the storylines and a happy ending for everyone. Unfortunately, that was not the case.

After the dramatic coming out scene at the dinner table with Nick’s father, I thought we would be dealing with some fallout but there’s…nothing. Which is kinda hilarious when there’s a scene in Volume 3 where Charlie complains how everything’s fine after coming out scenes in books and movies. Pot. Kettle. Black.

From there we get multiple pages of Nick and Charlie trying to figure out if they want to have sex or not as well as the characters’ thoughts on whether virginity is important or not and while this is all well and good for the intended audience — I think young people need to know these things! — I am very much an eldritch being and do not need this information. And like I’ve said multiple times in my reviews of the different volumes, it’s unfair, but that’s life.

We also get multiple pages of Nick not knowing whether he’s going to be staying in Kent for college or moving to as far away as Leeds, and it’s at this point in the book that I start getting frustrated at something not because I’m not part of the intended audience.

Aside from Nick and Charlie having sex, pretty much nothing else happens in this volume. And after reading the afterword where Alice Oseman reveals she’s been busy working on the Netflix adaptation that I get the feeling that the multiple pages of university touring all over the country was just in service of the show and for future beautiful shots of these locations. Which I don’t mind once I finally get to that part of the show!

But as a book, this made it seem like she was just extending the book…for what? It did make me look forward to watching the other seasons of Heartstopper just to see how they’re going to film this, seeing as I’ve found the adaptation to be much better than the books.