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Throwing all objectivity out of the window here, because Alice Oseman's illustrious, vivacious art style stole my heart and made me spend an entire day reading through the entire series at once.

Heartstopper, in its essence, hits a lot of popular checkmarks of the YA genre:
✔️ Coming-of-age angst/teenage struggles (bullying, identity exploration, school troubles).
✔️ Sexual awakening (particularly in the non-heteronormative context that Oseman's stories focus on).
✔️ Experience of first love (chaotic emotions, emotional overload).
✔️ Attraction of opposites (basically a 'jock meets introvert' romance, but... that description really wouldn't give this justice, so please don't let that cloud your impression of the story if you haven't read Heartstopper yet).
A lot of these aspects are encompassed in Oseman's often-mesmerizing style, but while on their own they might pass the impression of a stereotypical, clichéd Young-Adult/coming-of-age tale, the interaction of all these elements is what makes Heartstopper such an interesting and captivating story.

The author understands that with such an overabundance of coming-of-age stories in this crowded genre, it is important to create relatable, multi-faceted characters. The character work is one of her biggest strengths, as even the secondary characters are given their fair deal of emotional baggage that Oseman explores gracefully, even if it might sometimes not occur until later volumes of the series. It all comes back again to Nick and Charlie, the two central characters. They are both highlighted through distinct, colorful personalities that grab your attention and make you root for them. Additionally, the author alludes to mental health issues through several well-developed subplots in her story and never forgets to handle them respectfully, with an overall uplifting connotation, as she takes them seriously, but never allows the positive energy of the story to be pulled down by more serious subjects.

What I also feel the need to highlight is Oseman's art style: She has such a unique, captivating way of drawing her characters and bringing them to life. One of my favorite techniques of hers in this series is to have characters communicate with each other through messaging apps, and showing their hesitation to send messages that would reveal their true thoughts or emotions, sometimes deleting them and sending something less revealing instead. It's a technique that gives insight into the characters' thought processes without unnecessary narration, while also showcasing the difficulties of proper communication over technological devices.

(Of course, as a highly-strung over-thinker just like Charlie I was basically bound to fall in love with this story, so that certainly didn't hurt my appreciation for the series.)

Since I'm not planning to write separate reviews for the rest of the series, here are my individual ratings for the other three novels along with some short notes:
Volume Two ★★★★��
Just as mesmerizing as the first novel, maybe even a step ahead as the author solidifies her voice and manages to hit all the notes and feelings of teenage discovery and self-doubting.
Volume Three ★★★★
For me, a slight step down from a narrative perspective, as I wasn't terribly fond of the school excursion plot. Still: this has its fair share of heartfelt moments and elaborates on Nick and Charlie's relationship in charming ways. Not my personal favorite of the series, but certainly not a step down in quality.
Volume Four ★★★★½
As mentioned before, the author emphasizes mental health and eating disorders as a driving element of the narrative here, but it works well and still allows Heartstopper to operate as a mood elevator. An elevator that only moves upwards, that is.

Available to read on .