Heartstopper Novellas ‘This Winter’ and ‘Nick and Charlie’ Fill in the Gaps
Reading these two novellas feels like the cherry on top of the cake. Midway through Heartstopper Volume Four, we got a summary but not a full account of Christmas Day for Nick and Charlie, so the novella This Winter focuses solely on that day. The Heartstopper series focuses on Nick and Charlie while in high school, which naturally makes readers wonder what happens when Nick, who’s older than Charlie by one year, goes off to college; that question is answered in the novella Nick and Charlie. Both novellas are in prose form with sketches scattered throughout; This Winter is about 60 pages and Nick and Charlie is about 160 pages.
Despite its short length, I loved This Winter because it described their Christmas Day through the eyes of big sister Tori, then Charlie, and then little brother Oliver, all in the style of a diary monologue. It was really nice to hear directly from Tori again, since we only otherwise hear from her in Solitaire. And this is the first that we’ve heard directly from Oliver, who is such a sweet, energetic little boy. Charlie is having a hard time enjoying Christmas since his entire family is focusing on his anorexia and his stay in a psychiatric ward, so he escapes to Nick’s house for some comfort.* Charlie realizing how many people support him makes his Christmas day not so awful in the end.
Nick and Charlie skips ahead a little over a year after Heartstopper Volume Four, picking up during exam time at the end of Nick’s last year in high school. Nick is intensely excited about going to college but Charlie feels like he’s being left behind. Tao and Elle are going through the exact same problem since Elle is also graduating and Tao has one more year left along with Charlie. This story is an emotional roller coaster that left me saying, “Just TALK to each other” at least a dozen times while reading, but the ending was worth it. Nick and Charlie’s relationship up to this point has mostly been butterflies and dealing with bullies, but we finally see them seriously consider what they mean to each other and how they see their relationship moving forward. It feels like our baby boys are growing up and starting to see what adult life will be like.
This Winter was a very quick read and Nick and Charlie took about the amount of time to read as a Heartstopper volume. With all four currently published volumes of Heartstopper and these two novellas, they could all be read in about eight hours, so it’s not an unreasonable amount of time if you need to binge-read something fun. I would eventually like to do a re-read of the Osemanverse in timeline order to really fit all of the pieces together.
For those keeping track of the “Osemanverse” timeline, This Winter takes place on Christmas day in the middle of Heartstopper Volume Four, about one year after Heartstopper Volume One begins. Nick and Charlie takes place in June-July about one year and three months after the end of Heartstopper Volume Four. It’s a little confusing, but Oseman has provided a couple helpful breakdowns on her website. The images on her webpage include the timeline for her four novels and two novellas, as well as the graphic novel series.
*If you or anyone you know is struggling with a mental illness, please seek help. You can instant message a counselor at www.crisistextline.org or www.thetrevorproject.org. You can also find more resources at www.nationaleatingdisorders.org, www.adaa.org, and www.heardalliance.org. For anyone who needs to hear this: You matter.
