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After six volumes of friendship, first love, family conflict, mental illness and queer self-discovery, Alice Oseman brings Nick and Charlie’s school years to a close in this last book, which is a gentle and reassuring conclusion, filled with the affection and emotional openness that have defined the series from its beginning.

Adjusting to that form took me a little time, but Alice Oseman made the transition remarkably easy. Nick Nelson and Charlie Spring are immediately likeable, their developing friendship is genuinely lovely, and the nervous uncertainty of first love is captured through small gestures that feel completely disproportionate only until we remember what it was like to experience them ourselves.