I happened to see someone I don’t even follow review the webcomic version of this lovely little story one Saturday. Someone in my feed had liked their review; they had included a link. I clicked it. I then spent the next couple of hours feverishly reading through it, until I finally had caught up with the latest post. I think that was about a year ago, and it’s still going.
You wouldn’t do wrong by yourself to buy this hard copy, or the second volume coming out in July, but there is so much waiting involved with that, and you can read most of the content for free on the Tapas app, or on Tumblr. AND. I was right to be wary about where this volume ends, because the spot she chose to end is tortuous. I skipped right to the next episode when I was reading and it was way less stressful that way.
Okay, but the actual story. It’s nothing special, really, except that the characters Oseman has created in Charlie and Nick are just so lovable. British schoolboys meet, become friends, fall in love (she originally wrote about them in her first novel, Solitaire, as side characters, but wanted to go back and explore how they’d met). Charlie is openly gay (he was outed the year previously by gossip), and Nick was straight, or so he thought. There isn’t all that much plot or dialogue. Most of the emotional arc comes from the art, which is adorable. Oseman gets a lot across in a short amount of time and space.
If you’re looking for something light and sweet and heartwarming, you could do a lot worse than this comic. So here’s the link to Tapas 🙂
[4.5 stars]
