Break out the heart eyes and rugby kits: The much-anticipated third season of the gushingly earnest teen romantic dramedy “Heartstopper” arrives on Netflix on Oct. 3.
The show, based on the best-selling graphic novel series by Alice Oseman, follows Nick Nelson, a golden retriever of a rugby player, and Charlie Spring, a sensitive drummer, who meet-cute one day in homeroom. They and their friends cover every stripe of the L.G.B.T.Q. rainbow. They’re also goofy and anxious and smart and exuberant, all of the things teenagers are as they discover love and attraction for the first time. The show deals frequently with difficult issues — bullying, eating disorders, gender dysphoria, housing insecurity — while also painting an effervescent picture of adolescence that, in a homage to the comics, is sprinkled with hearts and fireworks.
There are five volumes of “Heartstopper” — plus two spinoff novellas and a stand-alone novel, “Solitaire,” about Charlie’s prickly, fan-favorite older sister — available to read while you wait for a sixth book (and a potential fourth season). But if you’ve already blown through Oseman’s oeuvre and are craving more young adult love stories that grapple with darker themes, these books are for you.
I’d like a grounded, heartfelt love story
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
By Benjamin Alire Sáenz
When we first meet Aristotle Mendoza, he is 15, bored and miserable, staring down another summer in El Paso. Then he meets Dante Quintana, who teaches Ari how to swim at the community pool. Their friendship blooms from there, growing out of comic books, bus rides and heated debates about the literary merits of Joseph Conrad.
Sáenz brings immense empathy to his depiction of Ari and Dante’s evolving relationship, and to the book’s exploration of issues such as Mexican American identity, PTSD, homophobia and transphobia in the late 1980s. As much as this is a love story, it’s also a story about the transformative kismet of finding your best friend.
How about an enchanting book about found family?
The House in the Cerulean Sea
By TJ Klune
Linus Baker does not like surprises. A caseworker for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, he spends each day inspecting government-run orphanages for witches, gnomes and other magically inclined children before coming home to his cat, Calliope; putting on his monogrammed pajamas; eating a bagged salad and going to bed. So when he gets an unexpected assignment sending him to the Marsyas Island Orphanage, home to six dangerous charges who might bring about an apocalypse, he is more than a little stressed.
But Linus finds himself unexpectedly charmed by the children — and by their teacher, the enigmatic Arthur Parnassus. This quirky fantasy will sweep you away as Linus uncovers the island’s secrets and learns to trust his heart over his rule book.
I’m in my British rom-com era
Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute
By Talia Hibbert
Hibbert, best known for her adult romances, brings her signature swoon and deft representation of disability to this young adult love story. Brad, a soccer player with obsessive compulsive disorder, and Celine, a social media influencer with a soft spot for conspiracy theories, used to be best friends. That’s all over now, though, and the two are fierce academic rivals with nothing else in common … which is of course why they find themselves signed up for the same outdoor survival course.
Anglophiles will appreciate the Britishisms (Hibbert provides a glossary for uninitiated readers), rom-com lovers will dig the woodsy shenanigans and anyone who has ever felt anxious or insecure will love watching Brad and Celine find their way back to each other.
I like my love stories with monsters and magic
Carry On
By Rainbow Rowell
Rowell draws on school-for-magic tropes to craft this epic love story about two archrivals, the inexplicably powerful Simon Snow and his closeted vampire roommate, Basilton Grimm-Pitch.
Simon didn’t want to be a savior. Every year, he shows up at the Watford School of Magicks intending to do his homework, hang out with his girlfriend and eat his weight in sour cherry scones. But trouble seems to have a knack for finding Simon, usually in the form of magical creatures that want to eat, maim or incinerate him. There’s also the issue of his roommate, Baz, who definitely hates him. But when the ghost of Baz’s mother shows up asking them to avenge her murder, Simon and Baz must pair up to track down the killer, figure out who’s sapping England’s magic and save their school (and if they happen to squeeze in some apocalyptic snogging along the way, so be it).
Got anything with queer “A Knight’s Tale” vibes?
Gwen & Art Are Not in Love
By Lex Croucher
Gwen has been betrothed to Arthur since birth. There are just two problems. One, she detests him. And two, she can’t seem to shake her secret crush on the lady knight who just entered her father’s tournament.
Unfortunately for Gwen, her parents have summoned Arthur to Camelot for a summer of jousting and wedding planning. However, after Gwen catches Arthur making out with a boy, the fiancés form a begrudging alliance. With a charming cast of characters, this book mixes political intrigue with childhood trauma and internalized homophobia, and celebrates not just romance but also the importance of self-love and friendship.
Any other good book-to-screen adaptations?
Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda
By Becky Albertalli
This 2015 novel — about Simon Spier, a closeted Georgia teen who is blackmailed by a fellow student after leaving his secret email correspondence with another gay boy open on a school library computer — shares a lot of DNA with “Heartstopper”: the witty quips and pop culture references, the crushes and identity struggles, the drama of adolescent friend groups. It also has a charming screen adaptation, which made waves in 2018 for showcasing a gay teenager in a major studio romantic comedy.
Come for the Frosties and the tender honesty, stay for a carnival climax that will have you giggling and kicking your feet.
Give me movie quotes, milkshakes and a promposal
Better Than the Movies
By Lynn Painter
Cyrano meets Nora Ephron in this young adult answer to the question Harry and Sally posed more than 30 years ago: Can men and women ever be just friends?
Liz Buxbaum may not have much actual dating experience, but her obsession with romantic comedies has taught her everything she thinks she needs to know about what happily-ever-after looks like. She’s determined to do whatever it takes to get hers — even if it means enlisting her next-door neighbor and childhood nemesis, Wes Bennett, to help her seduce her crush in time for prom. This novel has plenty of cinematic moments as well as thoughtful explorations of grieving a parent and navigating blended families.
The post Love Netflix’s ‘Heartstopper’? You’ll Love These Charming Books, Too. appeared first on New York Times.