Still excellent. My only concern is that now that all the characters are out, and the main romance is established, Oseman has to manufacture other sources of conflict for the story, and the eating disorder subplot definitely fit into that category. It felt like a Special Edition looking at Special Issues. But that was still minor, I still really loved the book overall. ( )

Agh! All the stars in the world for this comic. It is so fulfilling. There are so many elements to it that you simply can't stop reading. The illustrations are so beautiful and the story is heart warming. It touches so many delicate yet important topics and does so in a very real way and not with a 'Love can fix anything' narrative.

The bonus content deserves even more stars. It is like the author felt like rewarding us with a few smiles now that she has made us weep throughout the comic.

Loved it. 100 % recommend. ( )

*See Volume 1 review for initial series thoughts*

**Contains Spoilers - Volume 4*

Volume 4 continues on the themes of volumes 3 in that we dive deeper into the tougher, more serious topics. We still have some beautiful light moments, including the first Nick & Charlie ILY, and a great beach day with the "Paris Squad, but we also focus on some of the tougher realities.

We learn more backgrounds of the various side characters, including some of the hardships they have faced (Elle can't visit family in Egypt due to her being trans and her safety could be at risk, Darcy has a super homophobic and mean family, etc), I think the overall widening of our view on the realities of all the characters gives readers more and more ways to feel seen in difficult situations, and that is such an important part of these books.

For Nick and Charlie, we really see the decline of Charlie's mental health and the progression of his eating disorder. There are some really important scenes with Nick and his mum where he expands the circle in order to potentially help Charlie more. Charlie finally talks to his parents about his declining mental and physical health, and we follow his journey to get some in-patient help. We skim over the months he is away getting help, and see this time mainly in flashbacks via Nick & Charlie's journals.

We hop forward to Charlie being back around Christmas and the new year, and see him navigating some of the hurdles he has to face in order to continue on his healing journey. If you want to dig more into his time away, there is a novella (This Winter) that dives more into what Charlie was going through in therapy, along with more info about that first Christmas back.

But back to volume 4, a super important part of the end of this volume is Charlie's new understanding of the importance of a broad support structure. Yes you can love your boyfriend / partner / person, but it's also important to have parents and siblings and friends and a therapist to help you deal with issues. This is re-iterated when we finally meet Nick's dad and have a full Spring-Nelson family dinner. Nick comes out to his dad, and has some awful interactions with his brother, but we see the importance of Nick's mum and Tori (Charlie's sister) and their roles in each of the boy's support circles.

Overall this was the heaviest installment, but also the most important when it came to making some very hard topics more accessible to a younger audience. I hope these books can help kids going through any of the issues discussed in the first 4 volumes to see that they aren't alone and it's ok to ask for help.

Anxiously awaiting the release of the final installment in this series, volume 5! ( )

Reading through the series as a whole (at least all that is currently published) really shows a lot of character growth that I feel is needed. While the first few books in and of themselves are cute, having them all together really brings the series to a good place. While it leaves off with still having more personal growth needed in the characters, it still has that cute feeling the first one does.

While the series as a whole is largely not targeted to gay men (in being written by a cis woman author and largely for a woman-based audience), it is still a really cute story. ( )

3.5 ( )