As with the first two volumes, you get all the aboslute adorable-ness and loveability that is Nick and Charlie, and of course the rest of the squad that we have fallen in love with! But we also delve into some deep, serious topics as well. Topics such as self- harm, mental illness, and eating disorders. It’s a lot, but it is dealt with in such a mature way.
In Volume 3 we find ourselves in Paris with the squad! Nick and Charlie are sharing a room with Issac and Tao. Nick is not completely out yet, so they have to still be careful about their relationship. We see relationships develop, and friendships grow.
Volume 4 really focused on Charlie’s mental health and eating disorder. Nick is nothing but supportive and thoughtful to Charlie throughout this entire book. He encourages Charlie to speak to his parents, and even goes with him when he does. And I loved every minute reading this! WE LOVE SUPPORTIVE PEOPLE IN OUR LIVES!!!
As much as I adore Nick and Charlie, I truley believe Nick’s mother had the best moment in this book! Sarah is an absolute angel, a gift, and someone that everyone needs in their lives. AND in my opinion, she had the best speech in the entire book.
I love how Alice Oseman addresses that as much as Nick and Charlie care and love each other, they can’t always depend on one another for everything. They need other support systems around them, like friends and family because it is just as important! And with that I will end with the AMAZING, BEAUTFUL, WONDERDFUL speech by Sarah Nelson!
“Maybe you can’t help him, darling. I know you love him so, so much. I’m sure he loves you too. And I know you feel like it’s your job to “save him”. I know it feels like you are both each other’s whole world, but that dependency isn’t healthy for either of you. Charlie needs help from someone who isn’t his sixteen-year-old boyfriend. He needs help from a doctor or a therapist, someone who knows about eating disorder and how to treat them. Love can’t cure a mental illness. There are lots of ways to help him, you can just be there. To listen. To talk. To cheer him up if he’s having a bad day. And on the bad days you can ask what you could do to make things easier. Stand by his side, even when things are hard. But also knowing that sometimes people need more support than just one person can give. That’s love darling.” Sarah Nelson (Nick’s mum)
Heartstopper Vol 4- Alice Oseman
TRIGGER WARNINGS FOR:
Mental Illness
Self Harm
Eating Disorders
If you need more information please check out her website which has all the content warnings for these books, plus her other books as well CLICK HERE FOR A LIST OF TRIGGER WARNINGS!!!
I personally quite enjoyed this portion of the book. It really surprised me, because I wasn’t sure what to expect. What happened to the characters in this alternate world was absolutely heartbreaking. Don’t even get me started on Magnus and Alec! And the Blackthorns…Damn! When Thule Livvy was telling Emma and Jules what happened to the Blackthorn family, it was heartbreaking.
Emma and Jules
Honestly, Emma and Jules are not my favorite characters, and this relationship did frustrate me throughout this series. However, I could tolerate them the most during this book. It was sad to see Julian without his emotions and how he treated the people around him. I knew it was going to be bad because he’s already a character that will do anything to protect the people he cares about. Now without any emotions, it will end up being 10xs worse. He could go around killing everyone!
Mark, Kieran and Cristina
I don’t know about anyone else, but this one was and is my freakin SHIP! I love these threes so much and I really didn’t expect to. When we were first introduced to Mark I loved him, and I still do. Same thing for Cristina! I love her so much, and throughout this entire series, my thought was NO ONE better hurt Cristina. I didn’t care about Kieran in Lady Midnight. He did things that were NOT okay, and even though he did try to help at the end, it didn’t make up for it. However, slowly we start to see more of him and the reason he did things, and how much he truly cares for Mark, and I started to like him. By the end of Queen of Air and Darkness, I absolutely adored Kieran. And I love these three together soooo much! As Emma said “hot faerie threesome” and I’m all for it!
Ty and Kit
This plot line followed Ty as he tried to bring Livvy back from the dead. It surprised me that no one noticed what he was doing…but at the same time, with everything going on, it does make sense. Kit, who didn’t want to do this, but also didn’t want to let Ty down, reluctantly went along with it. I really wish Kit would’ve just said no from the beginning. I understand why he didn’t, but still. I honestly think it was a good idea for these guys to going their own way for now…and I mean just for now. We don’t want that forever(NOPE NOT FOREVER!) Kit wants to be liked and have a real family so honestly he would probably gone along with anything. Ty is so use to having someone(his family) with him, I think it’s good for him to go to the Scholomance. Secretly(not so secretly) I absolutely LOVE Kit going to live with Jem and Tessa! I love it so much!
Helen and Aline
It was so nice to see these two FINALLY back with the family. And it made sense how it all worked. She wasn’t just welcomed back into the family by the younger siblings. They were so young when she was exiled, they obviously would feel the way they did about others. Plus they just lost Livvy. TO me, it made sense. Still, Helen tried so hard to work on gaining the relationship back with them, and I liked seeing it.
The Cohort
F**K The Cohort!
The Cohort is some bullshit. This damn whatever you want to call it…I see it as a damn cult…well I HATE THEM! As I assume we all do. And the entire time I was reading this book, I kept picture Horace Dearborn as a former president that we have(if you know, you know). I honestly didn’t expect for them to all get exiled. It’s going to make for a really interesting story line going into The Wicked Powers(which I’m soooo excited for)
Ash
I honestly don’t know what to expect from this character. At this moment in time, I’m kind of indifferent towards him. I feel like we don’t know enough about him yet for me to love him or hate him. I need to know him more. But I’m curious how will this character play out. But the fact that he’s Sebastian Morgenstern’s son…HOLY FUCK!
Dru
I feel like Dru did have more in this story than in the other stories, but we still didn’t get much. Which is fine since I heard she will be a main character in The Wicked Powers. I really like Dru and I can’t wait to see her story. I felt bad for her because every time we saw her, she was pretty much alone. Also everyone kept calling her fat because she’s curvy and for her to not eat so much. I swear it was pissing me off every time I read it, and I wanted to punch everyone one in the face. She’s fucking 13 dammit.
TMI Characters
Some people felt like we saw too much of the TMI characters in this book, but I completely disagree. I loved seeing them every time, and it made sense why they were there. They definitely added to the story, and were not just thrown in.
MALEC
OMG YESSSS! I LOVED THIS SO MUCH! YES YES YES YES YES!!!! I loved this so much and I couldn’t be happier with how it ended. Just to see where Alec started way back in City of Bones, to him at the end of Queen of Air and Darkness! It’s so beautiful!
Rosales
I’m so curious about this family and the relationship that they have with the fae. They have a lot of faerie heirlooms, but they had to hand them over to the Clave when the Cold Peace was in place. They hid some heirlooms from them, but I’m curious about it. Maybe we will find out more in The Wicked Powers?
Random Thoughts
Alec Lightwood the new Consul! YESSS! I’m so happy for him. It’ll be nice to see how he leads.
Clave in Exile. I really didn’t see that coming, and I’m so curious how it’ll turn out. Especially now that they basically have to rebuild everything.
Ending
Please tell me how this entire 912 page book, and with that 5 page epilogue, it ends on a HUGE ASS CLIFFHANGER!?!?!?! WHAT??? Seriously, in just 5 pages?
I’m probably missing so much more, because this was a huge ass book and A LOT happened. What did you guys think of this book? What was your favorite part?What about your least favorite part?Who’s your favoritecharacter(s)? I would love to know!
Random Thoughts 