Solitaire Books in Order

The Solitaire corner of Alice Oseman's work is a little unusual. It begins with Solitaire, a novel centered on Tori Spring, then widens through the companion novellas This Winter and Nick and Charlie. All three books share a world with Heartstopper, but the mood here is different. It is quieter, heavier, and more interested in the things a bright school-day surface can hide.

Tori is the center of it all. She is Charlie Spring's older sister, dry, smart, and emotionally shut down in a way that feels both funny and painful. In Solitaire, she is drifting through sixth form, worrying about Charlie after a hard year, and trying very hard not to care about anyone too much. Then a string of strange school incidents linked to a group called Solitaire pulls her into something messier, especially once Michael Holden, a chaotic and oddly charming boy, starts pushing past her defenses.

This is not the softest place to start with Oseman.

That darker tone is the point. Solitaire is about depression, loneliness, family strain, and the exhausting performance of acting fine when you are not fine at all. Even when the book turns funny, the humor has a bite to it. The school setting matters because it feels small and pressurized, the kind of place where rumors move fast and everyone is supposed to be preparing for adulthood whether they are ready or not.

The two novellas deepen that picture. This Winter drops in during a difficult Christmas for the Spring family and shows how mental health struggles ripple through siblings, parents, and partners, not just the person at the center of the crisis. It is brief, but it adds warmth and perspective around Charlie, Tori, Oliver, and Nick. Nick and Charlie then jumps later, when university is getting close and the question is no longer whether Nick and Charlie love each other, but how that love holds up when real change arrives.

Small moments do a lot of work here.

That is what ties these books together. They are not built around giant twists, even when Solitaire flirts with chaos. They are about teenagers trying to survive school, family expectations, illness, and the fear of being left behind. Readers coming from Heartstopper should know this branch of the universe goes to harder emotional places, but it also adds depth to characters they may already care about. If you want Tori's voice, more of the Spring family, and a fuller view of how Nick and Charlie's world looks when the glow drops away a little, this is the series to pick up.