Heartstopper Vol. 6

Trigger Warning: Mental Health, talks of relapse in Eating Disorder, a homophobic slur is used, toxic male masculinity, mentions of cheating, and spoilers .

Heartstopper has been one of two of my favorite graphic novel series to read. Alongside Lore Olympus, the ending to Heartstopper, while bittersweet ties everything up beautifully. From Charlie’s growth from being the shy outed kid who was bullied at Truham to becoming the head Boy and Nick figuring out his sexuality to being open and proud is beautiful and we get to see how everything comes in full circle is amazing to see.

Oseman has consistently impressed me with her storytelling. The way she is able to showcase Nick and Charlie’s triumphs and struggles not with words but rather facial expressions is gorgeous. Often, I read graphic novels where the dialogue outweighs the artwork and in this case, Oseman is able to balance the style of the artwork alongside with having the dialogue speak to the scenes we were in. The artwork is simplistic but conveys so much without the usage of colors, which in my opinion is hard to do. I have enjoyed the artwork that Oseman presented in this series and can’t wait to see more of her artwork, along with the style of her characters.

Everyone felt realistic in this story, including David. First glance, he is a bully not only towards his brother Nick, but to Charlie as well. Going so far as to almost out the relationship towards there father, had it not been for Tori (thank god for Tori). However, here we were able to see more of David’s development and how the divorce has impacted him. Often in stories, when a side character is portrayed as the “bully”, we don’t get to see those layers of the character and why they became the way they are. While he is still the “villain” in the story/Nick’s journey, there is a layer of shame/trauma that he went through that unfortunately he never talked about and down the road he made the same mistakes as his father. There’s a cycle of cheating/trauma that runs in the Nelson family and David tells Nick that he might cheat on Charlie down the road and keep that cycle going. It speaks volume on how cycles can run in families and how if we’re not careful, we’re doomed to repeat those mistakes and unlike David, Nick is confident that he won’t continue that cycle. We see two types of masculinity explored in this novel. While David is someone that bottles there feelings and doesn’t show those emotions because of societies standards they have for men, which is really a shame and we need to change that. Nick on the other hand despite growing up in that environment and trying to be perfect/bottle up his emotions realizes he can’t do that and his life spirals. From losing his cool on the rugby team to becoming confrontational with a guy attempting to flirt with Charlie, it becomes sad on how much he bottled up in order to keep those emotions hidden away from everyone else, including Charlie. Once he realizes he can’t do that, he reveals everything to his mom, which made me tear up. and Nick is able to reach out to those for help. It’s not always easy for men to reach out for help and the fact that Oseman shows that there is hope for men to get the resources/support they need is comforting and gives me hope for how we portray male characters in literature, specifically graphic novels.

Nick isn’t the only one that goes through his struggles, Charlie nearly has a relapse in his eating disorder. Despite it being disheartening for readers to see, we also get glimpses of how or why he relapses and having the readers understand that recovery from anything is not as easy as people believe it is. Recovery takes real work and time to unlearn all of the habits and intrusive thoughts people develop over time and I’m glad Oseman shows us this. I am so glad there was a balance of Charlie having his lows, but also knowing his worth and having strength to help Nick confide in him. It was a beautiful moment and when Nick reveals what he is struggling with, it made me tear up. The scene didn’t feel rushed and I love that Charlie and Nick are able to balance each other well. Also Charlie’s journey from being the bullied kid at Truham to being head boy and helping younger students be able to speak up and have the school environment become safer for future students is beautiful to see. When he made his speech on why he should become head boy, we saw the younger version of Charlie in one of the scenes, it honestly was Charlie’s journey coming in full circle and it’s been amazing to see Oseman to develop this character into someone that is loyal and soft-spoken but grows more confidence overtime.

I know that relationships don’t last forever and we did see that through Tao and Elles relationship. I didn’t like how they were on and off as I feel that is really out of character for them, however it didn’t become the full storyline and drag on, which would’ve been easy to do. However, I can understand why Oseman portrayed them having there struggles. Not every high school relationship lasts and as much as we want to see out characters get the happily ever after ending they deserve, life unfortunately doesn’t work that way. People’s dreams become so big and wanting to keep the relationship alive, it doesn’t work that way. Oseman showcases this in a way where we don’t blame either Tao or Elle but rather how people grow and change. I did like the epilogue of Tao visiting Elle and having the relationship be unknown and have the readers come up with their own interpretations of the characters we’ve grown to love.

This is an amazing series and the final volume wraps up everyone stories in a cohesive and realistic way. For anyone who is a fan of LGBTQ+ graphic novels/graphic novels in general, I highly recommend this series! Cannot wait for the movie being released on Friday, though I will miss the characters, I can’t wait to see what other stories Oseman has in store.