teen movies | Bookshelf Fantasies

It’s the end of an era!

Specifically, the Heartstopper era… during which Alice Oseman’s webtoon-turned-graphic-novels entranced readers with a swoony love story about two sweet boys who find one another, overcome bullying and deal with mental health crises, find a glorious friend group, and find a way to stay together, even while hearing (constantly) that teen relationships don’t last.

Nick and Charlie first meet early in their high school years. Nick, age 14, is one of the few out gay boys at school, and has been bullied for it. Nick, 16, is (presumably) straight and a star rugby player. The two connect instantly as friends, but there’s something else simmering beneath the surface right from the start. As the story progresses, Nick has an awakening about his own sexuality, Charlie deals with a severe eating disorder, and both learn to embrace their identities, stand proud, and allow their love to flourish.

In the 6th and final volume, as we readers deal with reaching the end, so too do Charlie and Nick have to deal with an ending of sorts — not of their relationship, but of their school years together. Nick is in his final year of high school, with plans to attend university out of town. He feels lost and conflicted — who is he without Charlie? Charlie has grown from a scared boy into a determined young man. He’s still himself, but has developed over the years into someone who sees that he can help others in a way that he himself wasn’t helped, launching a campaign to stop bullying and to establish a school club for gay kids to gather and feel safe.

As they navigate the ups and downs of their final school year together, Nick and Charlie confront serious issues, individually and together, but never lose their amazing connection. They also remain deeply committed to their friend group, who as individuals all add fresh elements to the story and as a group show the beauty of having a supportive, loving community.

Heartstopper volume 6 provides a lovely, cheery, moving conclusion to a wonderful graphic novel series. I’ll miss these characters!

From 2022 to 2024, Netflix aired three seasons of a wonderful adaptation of Heartstopper, with spot-on casting and a production vibe that perfectly captures the feeling (and feelings) of the books. This month, a final wrap-up movie was release, Heartstopper Forever:

I loved the three seasons of the seasons, and approached the movie this week with eagerness and nervousness.

Overall, I was happy with it! The movie takes a more depressing turn than the book does, which may be why I felt it started dragging a bit in the middle. Also, while the series episodes give breathing room to the friend group, so that we we really have time to get to know all the characters and their story arcs, the movie has so much ground to cover with Nick and Charlie that the friends mainly serve as background or support, without substantial storylines of their own.

That said, I did love seeing Nick and Charlie again, especially seeing how far they’ve come and how they’ve grown and matured together as their relationship has deepened. I will admit that seeing these characters being very sexually active can be a bit startling, considering that we’ve been watching them grow up since age 14 or thereabouts! Still, they are absolutely lovely together, and it’s beautiful to see them sorting out how to support one another, how to deal with their separate challenges and crises, and how to manage to be whole people as individuals, beyond their identity as “Nick and Charlie”.

Heartstopper Forever is essential viewing for anyone who’s watched the previous three seasons. For anyone who hasn’t, start at season 1 — I’ll bet you won’t want to stop!

This week, Netflix also dropped a short (35-minutes) behind the scenes special, Heartstopper: Ending on a Hi.

What a heartwarming way to end the Heartstopper experience! It’s lovely to hear the cast, crew, and fans talk about what the show has meant to them. If you’ve watched the show and the movie, definitely check this out too!

Now that I’ve reached the end, I’m tempted to start all over again from the beginning — with both the books and the Netflix series. I think it would be amazing to go back and see the characters once again at the very start of their journeys, knowing how much they grow and change as their stories move forward.

Heartstopper has been a wonderful experience. I encourage everyone to check it out!

It’s the classic tug-of-war: Book or Movie?

In the case of To All the Boys I’ve Love Before, why not enjoy both? That’s what I did this past week!

I watched the Netflix movie last weekend. Here’s the synopsis (via IMDb):

When her secret love letters somehow get mailed to each of her five crushes, Lara Jean finds her quiet high school existence turned upside down.

Okay, that doesn’t really tell us all that much.

The movie is super adorable. 16-year-old Lara Jean, a high school junior, lives at home with her widowed dad and her two sisters — but older sister Margot’s departure for college in Scotland throws the normal family routines out of whack. Lara Jean is missing Margot… and then somehow, her old love letters to five different crushes from her past end up in the boys’ hands, and things get rom-com cute and chaotic.

But what about the book? After watching the movie, I decided I needed to read the book — ya know, just for comparison’s sake. The book, by Jenny Han, is sweet and quirky (kind of like Lara Jean!). Here’s the book synopsis, from Goodreads:

What if all the crushes you ever had found out how you felt about them… all at once?

Sixteen-year-old Lara Jean Song keeps her love letters in a hatbox her mother gave her. They aren’t love letters that anyone else wrote for her; these are ones she’s written. One for every boy she’s ever loved—five in all. When she writes, she pours out her heart and soul and says all the things she would never say in real life, because her letters are for her eyes only. Until the day her secret letters are mailed, and suddenly, Lara Jean’s love life goes from imaginary to out of control.

In both versions, the main boys on Lara Jean’s very confused mind are Josh, the boy next door and Margot’s ex-boyfriend, and Peter Kavinsky, the super popular guy who once kissed Lara Jean back in middle school. Josh is blown away by Lara Jean’s letter confessing feelings for him, and Peter is trying to deal with a break-up from his long-term girlfriend, so Lara Jean and Peter end up as fake boyfriend and girlfriend, just to get everyone off their backs. Yes, the fake relationship plot has been around for a while, but To All the Boys manages to keep it fresh and fun.

The movie version is a great way to enjoy the full story without a whole lot of time invested, and the cast is pretty terrific. I have a definite weakness for John Corbett, who plays the dad (which gives you a good idea of my demographic, btw), but I appreciated the young’uns who make up the teen characters’ part of the cast.

I was a little confused, watching the movie, by the ethnicity of the sisters. According to the book, Lara Jean and her sisters are biracial, with a Korean mom and a white dad. The TV sisters appear to be from different ethnic backgrounds, which I kept thinking the movie might explain (are they adopted? I hadn’t read the book yet when I watched it). To complicate matters further, according to IMDb, the actress playing Lara Jean is of Vietnamese descent, and the actress playing Margot is of Chinese descent. No info on the younger sister (who, based just on looks, doesn’t appear to be Asian), but I thought it was odd casting to pick three girls who look nothing alike and then just ignore their diverse backgrounds. Sorry, I’m not trying to be offensive here, but not being familiar with the story beforehand, I was distracted by how distinctly un-related the sisters looked, and it took me a while to realize that the movie was just going to leave it all unacknowledged. Weird to get hung up on that, I know, but there it is.

The movie advances the plot a bit further than the book — the book leaves the ending on an open note. We know (and Lara Jean finally knows) how she feels, but not what the outcome will be. The movie has a suitably romantic and adorable ending… but since the book is the first in a trilogy, I assume we’ll get there in book #2.

Of course, I’m now a little worried about how there can be two more books’ worth of story left to tell, because the movie ending was pretty perfect and swoony. Now I’m anxious about what comes after that happy ending, and what direction books 2 and 3 might take the characters in.

So, which did I like more — book or movie? Hard to say! I’m glad I watched the movie first (which is definitely unusual for me). It strikes all the right notes, condensing teen worry, flirtation, hard family issues, mean girls, fitting in, first crushes, and the rush of first love, into a (less than) two hour experience that feels fun, fresh, and totally satisfying. If you need a quick mood boost, this is perfect (maybe with a mug of hot cocoa and some delicious cookies to go with). I liked the book a lot, especially the deeper look into the relationships between Margot, Lara Jean, and younger sister Kitty, and I’m glad I read it — but even if I hadn’t, the movie hits all the right beats and feels complete in and of itself.

So yeah, I say do both! Watch the movie, read the book… and as for me, I’m already moving on to book #2, PS I Still Love You… hoping there’s plenty more quirky romance and sisterly shenanigans in store!