Alice Oseman is an English author, illustrator, comic artist, and screenwriter. She publishes Young Adult Literature novels and runs a Webcomic called Heartstopper. She was born in Kent, England in 1994 and publishes her novels through Hachette Children's Books, with an assortment of Bonus Material.
All of her work takes place in the Osemanverse, sharing the same world and timeline, along with many of the same characters. She recommends that her books can be read in any order. Her Signature Style involves contemporary stories about "disaster teenagers", exploring themes of friendship, mental health, and LGBTQ+ identity.
Her accolades include nominations for the YA Book Prize, the Inky Awards, the Carnegie Medal, and the Goodreads Choice Award. Of these awards, she won the 2017 Silver Inky Award with Radio Silence, and the 2020 Goodreads Choice Awards for Best Graphic Novels & Comics with Heartstopper Volume 3.
You can explore Alice Oseman's work at her author's website
and support her through her Patreon.
The Osemanverse (in publication order):
- Solitaire (2015)
- Nick and Charlie (2015)
- This Winter (2015)
- Radio Silence (2016)
- Heartstopper (2016, ongoing)
- Heartstopper Volume One (2019)
- Heartstopper Volume Two (2019)
- Heartstopper Volume Three (2020)
- Heartstopper Volume Four (2021)
- Heartstopper Volume Five (2023)
- Heartstopper Volume Six (TBD)
- I Was Born For This (2018)
- Loveless (2020)
Tropes associated with this creator's work include:
- Breakout Character: Charlie Spring and Nick Nelson are undoubtedly Oseman's most famous characters, but they started out as minor players in Oseman's first novel Solitaire which was about Tori Spring (Charlie's sister). Oseman ended up getting so attached to Nick and Charlie that she developed their story as a webcomic which later became an internationally-acclaimed Netflix series.
- Cast Full of Gay: Most of the main characters in Heartstopper are LGBTQ+, along with Radio Silence, Loveless and I Was Born For This, with these works exploring on the sexuality and gender of its main characters.
- Comic-Book Time: Officially, Oseman's stories take place in the present at the time that she is writing them. This results in a drifting timeline in cases where she releases prequels (such as Heartstopper for Solitaire), and especially with the Webcomic Time of Heartstopper. Oseman acknowledges and goes along with this disconnect.
- Coming of Age Story: Heartstopper centers around Nick and Charlie figuring out their identities in high school, while Frances in Radio Silence is grappling with the period between high school and university.
- Coming-Out Story: Characters come out frequently in Alice Oseman's works. For example, Nick in Heartstopper spends the first chapters figuring out his bisexuality.
- LGBT+ Creators: Alice Oseman is openly aromantic asexual and has spoken about how this has influenced her work, especially Loveless, which features an asexual protagonist. Her pronouns are also she/they.
- Lighter and Softer: Among Oseman's works about the Truham/Higgs characters, Heartstopper is much sweeter and more upbeat than the original Solitaire. This was deliberate on the author's part as Nick and Charlie are generally more optimistic characters than the cynical Tori.
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Portmanteau Couple Name:- (Tori) Spring + (Micheal) Holden = Sprolden
- Nick + Charlie = Narlie
- The 'Verse: Alice Oseman's works all take place in the "Osemanverse," which features many of the same characters within the same universe and timeline, even as most of her stories standalone.
- Where the Hell Is Springfield?: Averted. It’s specifically stated that the town her works take place in is in Kent, in England.
