Alice Oseman has announced there will be a sixth book in their hit Heartstopper graphic novel series, as well as revealing what will happen in the next instalment of the story.
The series, which was adapted into a critically acclaimed and Emmy award-winning Netflix television show, follows Nick and Charlie, two teenagers who meet at a British grammar school and fall in love. Their story navigates the ups and downs of first love, friendships, coming out and mental health.
Author-illustrator Oseman initially started Heartstopper as a webcomic on Tumblr and Tapas, and then crowdfunded for a limited print run edition in 2018. Hodder Children’s Group then published Heartstopper Volume 1 in spring 2019, and there have since been three more volumes, as well as an official colouring book and The Heartstopper Yearbook.
In a video on Wednesday, Oseman revealed what readers could expect from the fifth volume of the story, which will be released in November.
The forthcoming book will “follow the gang as they look towards the future,” said Oseman. “Summer is on its way and Charlie has been working really hard on his mental health and he is starting to find an inner confidence: who he is, what he wants, what he wants to do with his life, while Nick is having a little bit of a crisis about where he’s going to go to university because he’ll have to make his university application choices very soon.” He will have to decide whether to choose somewhere far away, or stay closer to Charlie.
Oseman also announced that volume five would not be the final volume of Heartstopper. They said that while they had said for a long time that the series would end with volume five, after struggling with where the story was going, Oseman decided to “cold turkey to stop making the comic for a while, just to kind of take a step back, reassess, get my brain in a better space”.
During this time, Oseman realised that the story would work better across two volumes. “I can take my time with the end of the story, make sure all of the characters get their final moment to shine, and properly explore how Nick and Charlie’s relationship progresses in their final years of school”, they said.
Oseman secured their first publishing deal at 17 and has gone on to write four YA novels, two novellas, five graphic novels, an official colouring book and a yearbook. Recently named Attitude magazine’s person of the year, Oseman was also the writer and an executive producer for the Netflix Heartstopper adaptation.
