Solitaire

Nobody would describe Tori Spring as an especially cheerful person. In fact, she might be one of the most pessimistic teenagers you’ll ever meet. She often thinks about death and doesn’t particularly enjoy school or most things. She has friends, but it’s almost like they’re fundamentally different from her. When an anonymous individual, calling themselves “Solitaire,” starts posting mysterious clues, it catches the attention of Michael, a new student. After constantly discussing it with Tori, he eventually convinces her to figure out Solitaire’s identity. But when Solitaire starts pulling some not-so-harmless pranks, Tori’s life is upended, and she winds up reconsidering who she wants around her and what she really wants to do with her life.

Tori’s story is about a girl who doesn’t really know what she’s doing in life and maybe doesn’t even want to figure it out. She finds temporary solace in the occasional movie, which she frequently ends up not even finishing, or hanging out with her brothers. But mainly, she spends time nearly drowning in her seemingly endless parade of downer thoughts. Despite this, Tori is a compelling main character because she explores the challenges of growing up as a young girl, particularly those related to high school cliques and the internet.

Tori and her long-time best friend, Becky, are close in a somewhat confusing way. Tori tends to keep to herself, while Becky has a large circle of friends and is extroverted. This adds tension as the two of them are important to each other, but they occasionally drift apart. As a result, Tori ends up spending more time with Michael. While she and Michael grow attached to each other, others find Michael odd, further isolating the two of them. Lucas, another new boy, has a similar interest in Tori, but he’s awkward around her. He spends more time with Becky and her friends, entering a different social circle. One of Tori’s younger brothers, Charlie, also plays a sizable role in the book as his mental health troubles worry Tori and heavily impact their family.

Solitaire delves into the complexities of various aspects of teenage life, including high school, being a girl, being an older sibling, and navigating friendship struggles. Tori’s life changes in tandem with the mystery of Solitaire, bringing the reader into a constantly changing and developing story. However, the story does go a little off the rails, especially towards the end. There are numerous moving parts and pieces to the puzzle that need to be uncovered, making it feel a bit overwhelming and, at times, unnecessarily complicated.

That being said, Solitaire remains an enjoyable and intriguing story. The complex characters shatter the expectations of typical high school clichés. The characters’ challenges are relatable and difficult to overcome, and the story doesn’t feel like it finishes too perfectly or abruptly. However, the ending is satisfying, but it is not entirely resolved. Solitaire encourages readers to be more active participants in their lives and reflect on their inner monologues. The book urges its audience to get involved with something new and interesting while being careful of its consequences – waiting around won’t do any good, but neither will trying to go absolutely wild.

Sexual Content 

• Evelyn, an acquaintance of Tori’s, says, “The real question though is whether there’s sexual tension between Harry and Malfoy,” referencing enemies from Harry Potter.
• Evelyn and her friend Becky are discussing the movie Juno and one of its main characters, Michael Cera, when Becky says, “You’ve seen Juno, yeah? You think he’s cute right? Awkward boys are the hottest, aren’t they?”
• Becky tells Tori that she and her almost-boyfriend Jack had sex. Tori is surprised and then thinks to herself, “This is what most people do when you get to this age. You start finding partners, kissing, having sex. I have no issues with people doing that – like, I’m sex positive, and Becky has wanted to have sex with Jack for quite a while. And I know that kissing and having sex isn’t a race, and there are some people who never end up wanting to do those things anyway.” Tori asks Becky if it was good. Becky says, “It was both of our first times, so, no, not really. It was still fun, though.”
• Ben Hope, a boy in Tori’s friend group, is described as “the guy” at their school. He’s “the one boy in the sixth form that every single girl in the entire school has a crush on.” Tori doesn’t “fancy him.”
• Tori’s friends ask Michael if he’s gay. Michael says, “I guess you could say I’m not too fussy about gender.” Then he turns to another friend, Lucas, and says, “You never know, it might be you I’m in love with.” Lucas turns red.
• Becky asks Michael if he’s pansexual, and Michael shrugs. They continue talking about Michael’s sexuality, and he says, “Everyone’s attractive, to be honest, even if it’s just something small, like some people have really beautiful hands. I don’t know. I’m a little bit in love with everyone I meet.” The conversation continues for around three pages, but Michael doesn’t label himself.
• Tori hates Pride and Prejudice because “The women only care about the men.”
• While getting dressed for a party, Becky is “in just her bra and knickers.” Tori thinks she shouldn’t feel awkward because they’ve been friends for so long, but she does and ponders when nudity became so normal.
• Michael says Tori is a “sexy beast” and that she “could easily have had a boyfriend.”
• Charlie, one of Tori’s younger brothers, and his boyfriend kiss and hook up.
• Tori and Michael kiss. Tori says that when it happens, “everything finally starts making sense, knowing that it would be apocalyptic for me to not be here with him, because right then—at that moment—it’s like. . . it’s like—actually—I really would die if I don’t. . . if I don’t hold him.” Michael confesses his love for Tori, and she confesses hers in return.

Violence

• There are lots of discussions of death, wanting to be dead, killing yourself, etc. For example, Becky says that Tori “looks a little bit like [she] wants to kill [herself].”
• Tori also has lots of fantasies about killing herself, both passive and active. One example of this is when she is upset that her brother, Charlie, gets hurt. Tori thinks, “I’m still just sitting there. . . wishing that I hadn’t woken up this morning, I hadn’t woken up yesterday, I hadn’t ever woken up.”
• In the Harry and Malfoy discussion, Becky says, “The idea that bullying means that you fancy someone is basically the foundation of domestic abuse.”
• There is occasional talk of Charlie, his eating disorder, his obsessive compulsions, and his self-harming behaviors. Charlie has had self-harm relapses, spent some time at a psychiatric ward, and now goes to therapy.
• One night at a party, Tori’s youngest brother calls her and says Charlie shut himself in the kitchen and blocked the door. Tori comes home and forces her way into the kitchen. There is no discussion of his injuries, but Tori explains, “I find the first-aid kit and put plasters on Charlie’s arm.” She knows “that there’d be good days and bad days and sometimes there’d be particularly bad days like these, but he only self-harms when he’s at his absolute worst.”
• Michael, when meeting Becky’s friends, calls himself “a fairly capable Facebook stalker” and says, “You’re all lucky I’m not a serial killer.”
• Solitaire, the mystery blog, has the slogan, “Patience Kills.”
• Ben, a boy from Charlie’s school, hits Charlie in the face because he thinks Charlie “spread lies” about him. Tori finds Charlie “crumpled on the floor,” and “[Charlie’s boyfriend] tackles Ben.”
• Michael loses a skating competition, and he punches some lockers, kicks a pile of helmets, pulls strongly at his hair, and rips up lots of paper.
• A Solitaire post reveals that Ben is a homophobe and a bully. Solitaire’s post says that they hope people will help them “in preventing such acts of violence in the future by giving him exactly what he deserves.” After this, “two boys hold Ben Hope while several others hurl punches and kicks at him. Blood spatters onto the snow, and the spectacle gets wild cheers every time a hit is made.” Tori worries about people “killing him,” but Ben is only bruised.
• At a music festival, Solitaire shoots off fireworks, and some people catch on fire. Tori jumps away from a firework, but it explodes, and then she notices, “I feel the pain on my left arm. I look at it. I take in the flames creeping up my sleeve. . . And I plunge my arm into the icy water.” After this, her coat is in tatters, and “the skin peeking through is bright red. [She] press[es] on it with [her] other hand. It hurts. A lot.” Later, she “went to the hospital” and now she has “a big bandage” on her arm.
• Tori and Becky discover that Solitaire is really Lucas, Evelyn, and another boy named Quiff. At school, the three are in a room alone and take out a lighter. Lucas is “holding what at first looks like a gun, but is actually just one of those novelty lighters.”
• Solitaire was planning on burning the school, but Lucas decides not to. Quiff gets mad and “he swings his fist at lightning speed and punches Lucas in the face.” Then he “smashes Lucas in the stomach, this time doubling him over. He grabs Lucas’s arm with ease and wrenches away the lighter gun, then grabs Lucas by the collar, holds the barrel against his neck, and pushes him against the wall.”
• The Solitaire group start a fire at the school. Michael tries to get Tori away from danger by pulling her arm, and then, Tori describes, “before I know what I’m doing I’m yanking my arm so hard that my skin starts to burn. I’m screaming at him and pushing and I swing my leg around and actually kick him in the stomach.” Soon after, she ends up trapped in a classroom. Then, she “grabs a chair, not thinking about anything except fire and smoke and dying, and smash the thin window. . . a sprinkling of glass dust” goes over her face. There is no mention of anyone else getting hurt in the fire.

Drugs and Alcohol

• Tori describes a group at school as “popular girls who hang out with the cool boys from the boys’ school and use fake IDs to get into clubs.”
• Someone in Tori’s class is a social smoker.
• Tori imagines herself at a party, “everyone with a bottle in their hand” while she “tell[s] another of [her] embarrassing stories, perhaps a drunk story.”
• Multiple parties happen where nearly everyone at the party is underage and either drinking or smoking.
• Tori’s friends are going to a friend’s house. “They’re all going to get drunk and stuff even though it’s a Tuesday.” Tori later lies in bed and thinks about “all of the other people who were at the restaurant who are probably now drunk and getting off with each other on Lauren’s parents’ sofas.”
• When Michael has trouble articulating a thought, Tori asks if he’s high. He shakes his head no.
• At a party, Tori passes smokers. She thinks, “Smoking is so pointless. The only reason I can think of for smoking is if you want to die.” Some other teenagers at the party are drinking beer, and Becky is drinking Baileys Irish Cream. Tori also runs through a crowd of “drunk teenagers.”
• At a different party, Tori dances with Michael after she’s “had a bit to drink.”

Language 

• Profanity is used frequently. Profanity includes shit, crap, hell, twat, piss, bloody, fuck, bitch, bastard, and prick.
• “God” and “Jesus Christ” are frequently used in exclamation or to emphasize something. For example, Tori says about her hair, “I realized then that most of my face was covered up and who in the name of God would want to talk to me like that.”
• In an argument, Tori calls herself a “stupid, twattish pessimist” and says maybe she’s a “manically depressed psychopath.”
• A boy says to Charlie, “I don’t remember saying that you could spread lies about me to your retard sister.”

Supernatural

• None

Spiritual Content

• Michael says he doesn’t like his name. He says, his name “means ‘who resembles God,’ and I think that if God could choose to resemble any human being, he wouldn’t choose me.” Tori then imagines what it would be like to have a Biblical name because she’s not a believer and is probably going to hell.

by Alexa David-Lang