Heartstopper: Volume Five

When I originally look at this book, I think it said this was the last of the series. I thought when I finally gave in and got the physical copy from my library instead of waiting for them to get the ebook, that I would be finishing this series. Alas...

Anyway, this is always interesting for me, because I usually watch the show before reading the books, so I can compare things and see what has changed. Once again with the books - just like the show - this is a return to the more soft, fluffy that I have come to expect. (Season two and volume four were both departures for me, for different reasons.)

As a whole, I tend to enjoy both the show and the books for different reasons. With the show I like how expanded everything is and how much more we get from the secondary characters. With the book, I love how tightly it stays focused on Nick and Charlie.

However, with this volume, there are two things that I think the book did significantly better than the show.

Tori's conversation with Charlie on the Ferris wheel and the ending conversation between Nick and Charlie. (I talk about my thoughts on these scenes further in the spoiler below, for those that have not seen the show/read the book.)

For Tori's conversation:
Things were really left hanging here in the show. Without the payoff of her saying that neither her nor Michael are straight, the whole series of scene's with him and her at the fair, really has no point. They don't play up a level of insecurity, they give absolutely no reason to have this conversation.While to a degree I can understand skipping the Michael bit - because Tori pretty much outed him and with us not knowing any conversations that they have had, that is seriously not a cool thing to do - but more could have been done with this scene.So, in the book, Charlie flashes back to Michael making a couple of casual comments to him and Nick indicating that he is attracted to men. They could have had those scenes actually in the show. It's already so casually queer that this would have been a non-entity and Charlie still could have had a light bulb moment of realization without Tori having to say anything. But we didn't get to see that in the show. (Though it is kind of (unintentionally, I'm sure) hilarious that Charlie (a gay kid) tends to assume straight.)For me, the Tori aspect is much, much murkier. So, we have Issac who is ace and aro - he does not exist in the books. (Aled being...somewhat vague about everything I don't know where he is on any of this.) While I'm not the biggest fan of Tori being ace (it feels like this is yet another case of the standoffish, cold person in media being the asexual person) I thought that this would have been a chance for the show to have a person that is ace and alloromantic - as this is very distinctly different than someone that is ace and aro, I feel.However, I did find out that the author states that Tori is ace and on the aromantic spectrum (which, granted, so is demiromantic, which would still be different than aromantic) so... I hope that the shows reasoning wasn't 'we already have Issac, we don't need Tori being ace too.'

About the Nick/Charlie conversation at the end:

It already upset me with the show that Nick didn't tell Charlie at the end of season three that he was interested in a different school. One that was much further away. I didn't like it on the show and I felt that it ended on somewhat of a sour note because of this.The book handles it so much better. Nick tells Charlie and Charlie deals with it rather well. And I'm hoping that the show - assuming it does come back for a season four, which is a pretty big assumption to make, I think - doesn't make a bigger thing out of this. Really, for how much Charlie struggles to have people see him as not fragile (to see himself as not fragile) it would be a huge disservice to his character if the show would turn it into a drama-filled meltdown.And if it doesn't come back for a season four, I just feel that this should have been added to the ending, so it wouldn't have felt quite so...much like a bomb waiting to drop.

Now, both these scenes could have been saved to be expanded upon for a season four - but as of me writing this, no such season has been confirmed by Netflix. So, if that was/is the plan, it smacks of poor decision making and counting your chickens before they are hatched, to me.

Rant over. Liked the book.