The Heartstopper Sensation

While still at FP, I remember Alice Oseman popping to sign. She wasn’t someone I met; it wasn’t even a public event. Like so many others, she just dropped in to scribble on some stock.

But wow – what a difference a few years makes!

Now, Heartstopper is everywhere. It’s been on our Waterstones floor (twice) and we can’t move the copies fast enough. Hundreds of them, thousands. It’s being republished in hardcover; it’s had Yearbooks and Colouring Books and novellas. Excited groups made happy pilgrimages, just to see and find it.

Its is power of Netflix, inevitably, but we all know that Netflix isn’t necessarily a stamp of epic success (let’s not go there right now). So, why are Nick and Charlie so loved?

Finishing season 2 last night, I thought: how many kids need that kind of support, and can’t get it? You can be more open today, you can talk about being gay or bi or trans - or just being asexual and liking books - and the world around you can be much more forgiving. You can find your tribe and be happy.

Yet simultaneously, the polarisation has got so much worse. And when people hate you, they really go for it. Traditional parents, nameless keyboard warriors, self-appointed gatekeepers, right-wing evangelists, their viciousness knows no end. Progressive people can even turn upon themselves, dividing into factions and attacking one another.

The thing about Heartstopper, then, is the sheer brightness of its ideal. Its inclusivity and complete lack of judgement. Its little sparks and sketch-butterflies. There are hummocks along its road to joy, but the friend group is always there, its arms spread wide. In this ever-darkening world, we take the comfort we can, we wrap our friends about us like a blanket, protecting us from the bad things. And Nick and Charlie and their group - they are those friends. We know them, we love them, and we trust them.

Wholesome, happy fiction is not only becoming a trend, it’s becoming a necessity. And Heartstopper – thank you Alice Oseman – does it best.

Reading: Tim Pratt’s third Twilight Imperium novel, Veiled Masters.

Watching: John Cena in Peacemaker, which is having both my son and I in hysterics. It’s full-on, but so tongue-in-cheek it hurts, and I love his absolutely straight-faced sense of humour. John Cena, not my son.

Playing: Still Diablo IV, but also our D&D Campaign in Sigil, and on the Infinite Staircase. Look out for a further newsletter about no creative idea ever being original…