Reviewed by Arianne: Solitaire by Alice Oseman.

Product details:
Publisher: Harper Collins Children's.
Paperback, 400 pages.
Release date: July 31st 2014.
Rating: 2� out of 5.
Ages: 13+
Source: Received from publisher for review.
Reviewed by: Arianne.

In case you�re wondering, this is not a love story.

My name is Tori Spring. I like to sleep and I like to blog. Last year � before all that stuff with Charlie and before I had to face the harsh realities of A-Levels and university applications and the fact that one day I really will have to start talking to people � I had friends. Things were very different, I guess, but that�s all over now.

Now there�s Solitaire. And Michael Holden.

I don�t know what Solitaire are trying to do, and I don�t care about Michael Holden.

I really don�t.

This incredible debut novel by outstanding young author Alice Oseman is perfect for fans of John Green, Rainbow Rowell and all unflinchingly honest writers.

Before I read this book, I was in a reading slump. When other books failed to draw me in, Solitaire � swathed in hype long before release � seemed like the perfect book with which to break the cycle. And in a way, it did. It made me realize that good books still exist � it�s just a pity that Solitaire isn�t actually one of them.

Let me explain. You know when you read a book that�s almost universally loved, and it just doesn�t click with you? The feeling of guilt that crashes down as you wonder what you�ve missed, if somehow a chapter got left out of the edition you were reading, a chapter that would have changed your opinion of the story entirely? All of those things happened to me while reading Solitaire. I didn�t want them to, but I just can�t ignore the fact that I really did not like this book.

If you�ve read my reviews in the past, you�ll know that I�m an overwhelmingly positive rater � I always try to be generous with stars because no matter what I think of a book, I know it was a labour of love for the author. Someone somewhere poured months, maybe even years, of their life into this project and, for me, that in itself deserves a handful of stars. I don�t like writing negative reviews, but I have to write honest ones.

Tori Spring is a cynical Sixth Former whose life motto seems to be one of general contempt towards the world and everything in it. She�s brutally pessimistic, scornful and cruel. I appreciate the importance of having unlikeable heroines, but Tori�s not just unlikeable, she�s unbearable. I tried to understand her, I really did. School peers who are just blind clones of each other? We�ve all had them. Family strife? We�ve all been there. People who are just plain idiotic and need a good slap? We�ve all met one or two. These things, I could understand � I could even understand disliking these things. But Tori takes her hatred of everyone and everything to a whole other level. This book tries so hard not to be cool, to not care, when really it�s the story of someone desperate to be popular, of a girl who ignores her own problems and who embodies the �play-pretend teenage apathy� stereotype. Every character in this book is labelled and categorised. They are either too cool to care or incapable of controlling themselves � they are not complex or even memorable. Attempts to force them into the reader�s sympathy with tragic backstory and inane conversation fail grow particularly tiresome. However, in this review, I�m going to do the one thing that Tori never does, and that�s look on the bright side.

Alice Oseman is a teenage author, and as a teenage reader, I automatically go out of my way to support young authors in any way I can. I think it�s fantastic that agents and publishers are willing to take a gamble on YA writers who truly know what it�s like to be a modern teenager. In fact, the way Oseman describes what it means to be a teen in today�s world is one of the saving graces of the book. She details teen life in ways I haven�t seen in other contemporaries on the shelf. Exploration of tough issues like mental health, eating disorders and depression is particularly prominent and it�s something I�d love to see more of in YA.

Oseman�s writing style is solid and reliable, and I have no doubt she�ll go far in in the UKYA scene. It�s peppered with teen and pop culture references, which was fabulous - at first. I think it was supposed to make the dialogue and narrative more interesting but if I�m honest, it started to drag after a couple of chapters. I have no problem with references to movies and TV shows, and I particularly liked that fandom got a mention or forty, but it�s overdone. Not every teenager�s existence is defined by brands, and even when Tori ties to distance herself from it, all we get is a wannabe hipster narrator instead. Like many other aspects of the book, this element constantly swings between two extremes. On the upside, Michael Holden � the only character I really liked � brought enough entertainment to the tale that I could overlook the narration and focus on the story itself. The much publicised �realism� of the book is somewhat undermined by the melodramatic and distracting introduction of a �mysterious� and �secret� cyber society who cause insult and injury by playing dangerous pranks around Tori�s school but there had to be some kind of plot in there somewhere.

I stuck with Solitaire because I was hoping for some magnificent twist to make it all worthwhile � and also because I was still wondering if I was actually reading the book I�d seen nothing but praise for in recent weeks � and it just didn�t happen. I now understand why the blurb, which made me want read the book in the first place, is so scarce on the detail; because Solitaire has a lot of potential, but that�s probably the best thing about it. I also got the sense that it will date very quickly, what with the social media undercurrent and all the name-dropping, so it lacks any sense of timelessness. Most importantly, it fails to show that teenagers can be positive and constructive and self-aware as well as intellectual and sarcastic and biting, so it�s not a book I�ll be eagerly recommending to YA readers or otherwise.

In short: Solitaire helped me get out of a reading slump in that it made me want to read another � better � book as soon as I�d finished. I�m not saying others won�t enjoy it, but with such an eviscerating main character, harsh narration and a disappointing overall standard of execution, it really wasn�t for me.



--Arianne.