jshawreads's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
First of all, who on earth gave Adam Silvera the ability, and the right, to so deeply and aggressively cause me to cry like a bitch in public whenever reading his books? Everything of his I have read has been so deeply emotional, and connects on a level that few other authors have managed.
More Happy Than Not is the story of Aaron, scarred by his past and struggling to find happiness with the help of his friends and girlfriend. Until Thomas shows up, who Aaron gets on with so quickly and so well, and other emotions seem to start up, making Aaron question everything that has gone on before.
I dont want to delve any further into the story, because any spoilers could REALLY throw off what happens. Part of what goes down was so shocking and so unexpected by me that I was literally sat outside in my city's Gay Village, ugly crying into my drink.
A really, really good book, gripping, emotional, and devastatingly sad. Read this when in a good mental state only.
More Happy Than Not is the story of Aaron, scarred by his past and struggling to find happiness with the help of his friends and girlfriend. Until Thomas shows up, who Aaron gets on with so quickly and so well, and other emotions seem to start up, making Aaron question everything that has gone on before.
I dont want to delve any further into the story, because any spoilers could REALLY throw off what happens. Part of what goes down was so shocking and so unexpected by me that I was literally sat outside in my city's Gay Village, ugly crying into my drink.
A really, really good book, gripping, emotional, and devastatingly sad. Read this when in a good mental state only.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Homophobia, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Violence
flowerest's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.5
i had zero plans to read this book but ended up doing so anyway and it was a hell of a ride. it was emotional, raw and painful to read, and the end was so bittersweet it made my heart ache. i honestly didn't expect to like it as much as i did but here we are. it's a book i'll definitely be thinking of for a while.
the reason for the "low" rating is that i've definitely outgrown this type of book and never got fully immersed into it, but i know i would've made this my whole personality if i read it as a teenager lol
(definitely check trigger warnings if you're planning to read it)
the reason for the "low" rating is that i've definitely outgrown this type of book and never got fully immersed into it, but i know i would've made this my whole personality if i read it as a teenager lol
(definitely check trigger warnings if you're planning to read it)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Dementia, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Infidelity, Death of parent, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Violence
Moderate: Child abuse, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, and Domestic abuse
Minor: Drug use
alice17bex's review
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide attempt, Homophobia, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Injury/Injury detail, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Suicide, and Self harm
ingridmaria's review
dark
emotional
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
This book stuck hard in my head for days. It surprised me, but not in a shock-value way. The internalised homophobia was so real and I really need to re-read it knowin the ending. I didn’t read the deluxe edition, but apparently I should have because of the extra chapter
Spoiler
seeing as this one ends so unhappily. But then again that might take away from why I liked it so much</spoilers>. Knocked a quarter point off because the first 70 pages could (maybe should) have been 30.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Death of parent, Hate crime, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Suicide, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Violence, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Infidelity
Minor: Cursing, Vomit, Drug use, Child abuse, Child death, and Dementia
kclikesthings's review
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Bullying, Child death, Dementia, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Fatphobia
Minor: Abandonment
parasolcrafter's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
yknow that image of the guy whos crying but holding a thumbs up??? thats how i feel rn
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Classism, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Hate crime, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Suicide
Moderate: Sexual content
maisie_q's review
challenging
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Homophobia, Self harm, and Suicide attempt
m_riaelle's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
First of all, I feel sorry for those who've read this without the new final chapter. Just thinking of myself finishing this book without it, I knew I would have given it one star out of spite. I never wanted (needed) a character to actually have a break from all the shits life is giving him.
Second, as always, I'm here for the sad and intense feelings that I get from Adam Silvera's books, and I'm heartbreakingly satisfied. The twists in his books never failed to shock me.
Third, why not five stars? I would never ever tolerate cheating. I would have let it slide if it was done once due to poor decisions, but it happened for so long and happened again when the characters saw the chance to do so. I know the author tied the loose ends, but I just can't let that go. It does happen in real life, and one of the most things I hated is that.
Fourth, another reason why I didn't give this five stars? It's because I found myself skimming the first few and some middle chapters, which means it didn't give any impact at all. Also, I'm considering what I would've given this without the new final chapter, and for a debut book, this is surprisingly good.
CW: Gun Violence, Drugs, Mention of Armed Robbery, Suicidal Ideation, Grief, Suicide, Death of Parent, Self-harm, Homophobic Slur, Toxic Relationships, Toxic Friendships, Hate Crime, Homophobia, Cheating, Assault, Blood, Depression, Hospitalisation, Physical Abuse, Profanity, Teenage Pregnancy, and Violence (search it up for more specifics or correct CW as mine is what I thought was triggering while I read it)
Second, as always, I'm here for the sad and intense feelings that I get from Adam Silvera's books, and I'm heartbreakingly satisfied. The twists in his books never failed to shock me.
Third, why not five stars? I would never ever tolerate cheating. I would have let it slide if it was done once due to poor decisions, but it happened for so long and happened again when the characters saw the chance to do so. I know the author tied the loose ends, but I just can't let that go. It does happen in real life, and one of the most things I hated is that.
Fourth, another reason why I didn't give this five stars? It's because I found myself skimming the first few and some middle chapters, which means it didn't give any impact at all. Also, I'm considering what I would've given this without the new final chapter, and for a debut book, this is surprisingly good.
CW: Gun Violence, Drugs, Mention of Armed Robbery, Suicidal Ideation, Grief, Suicide, Death of Parent, Self-harm, Homophobic Slur, Toxic Relationships, Toxic Friendships, Hate Crime, Homophobia, Cheating, Assault, Blood, Depression, Hospitalisation, Physical Abuse, Profanity, Teenage Pregnancy, and Violence (search it up for more specifics or correct CW as mine is what I thought was triggering while I read it)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Homophobia, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Blood, Hate crime, Gun violence, Toxic friendship, Violence, Suicide, Self harm, Toxic relationship, and Physical abuse
writingcaia's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.5
It’d probably be 4⭐️ if I had read the first version of this novel which didn’t include the new ending chapter. Like the author I definitely believe Aaron deserved more happy endings, and I’m glad he wrote them.
Aaron is young adult boy living in a poor Bronx neighbourhood with his mom and brother, trying to find love and friendship and who he is, and to forget his dad’s suicide and his own attempt at the same.
In a world where technology can erase traumas and past pains, people will make choices that will reverberated, in not always a great way, throughout their lives.
This is a coming of age story with a fantasy twist.
It was a very touching tale of the need to forget, of the need to remember, of crippling memories, of choices that are not choices at all, and those that are but seem to be taken from us.
Aaron is young adult boy living in a poor Bronx neighbourhood with his mom and brother, trying to find love and friendship and who he is, and to forget his dad’s suicide and his own attempt at the same.
In a world where technology can erase traumas and past pains, people will make choices that will reverberated, in not always a great way, throughout their lives.
This is a coming of age story with a fantasy twist.
It was a very touching tale of the need to forget, of the need to remember, of crippling memories, of choices that are not choices at all, and those that are but seem to be taken from us.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Blood, Homophobia, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Medical trauma, Suicide, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Abandonment
rynaissanceenby's review against another edition
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
I have really mixed feelings about this book. I think the most important thing to know going into it is that it's problematic in a lot of ways, but the intention is to sort of dismantle the misconceptions that lead to those problematic takes. The problem is that it takes way too long to do that, and even once it gets there, it leans too hard into the misconceptions. It makes them feel like reasonable ways to think.
I also felt that a lot of interpersonal relationships felt unrealistic, but this might be a product of my relatively sheltered upbringing. At several points I found myself thinking, "This is ridiculous, nobody would ever get into a physical fight over this" or thoughts along those same lines, but the reality is that I don't understand why anyone would get into a physical altercation over just about anything. So maybe that's just my white suburbia upbringing talking.
Finally, I found the sci-fi-ish premise to be really dissatisfying. We were simultaneously given too many and too few details in order for me to sustain my disbelief. The basic idea is that Lateo can bury specific memories for you, but the idea that memories rarely resurface even with the triggers of being in familiar surroundings where the original memories happened is just a bit too far fetched for me. The pacing of this part of the narrative was a bit odd too. Lateo was hardly mentioned at all in the first half of the book, and it was absolutely crucial to the second half of the book. I think a little more foreshadowing would have done this book well.
All that being said, I considered DNFing this one, but it did get better in the second half, so I think it was worth my time. Especially since it was an audiobook, so I listened to it while cooking.
On that note, I felt that the choice of audiobook narrator was questionable. This story is told from the perspective of teenagers, and having a middle-aged dude narrate it...did not sound right. Furthermore, the voices the narrator did for the different characters were spotty. I was expecting to be able to tell who was talking from the different sorts of cadences and accents he was giving the different characters, but, especially when two characters were having a back and forth dialogue, their voices started blurring together and it go difficult to tell them apart.
I also felt that a lot of interpersonal relationships felt unrealistic, but this might be a product of my relatively sheltered upbringing. At several points I found myself thinking, "This is ridiculous, nobody would ever get into a physical fight over this" or thoughts along those same lines, but the reality is that I don't understand why anyone would get into a physical altercation over just about anything. So maybe that's just my white suburbia upbringing talking.
Finally, I found the sci-fi-ish premise to be really dissatisfying. We were simultaneously given too many and too few details in order for me to sustain my disbelief. The basic idea is that Lateo can bury specific memories for you, but the idea that memories rarely resurface even with the triggers of being in familiar surroundings where the original memories happened is just a bit too far fetched for me. The pacing of this part of the narrative was a bit odd too. Lateo was hardly mentioned at all in the first half of the book, and it was absolutely crucial to the second half of the book. I think a little more foreshadowing would have done this book well.
All that being said, I considered DNFing this one, but it did get better in the second half, so I think it was worth my time. Especially since it was an audiobook, so I listened to it while cooking.
On that note, I felt that the choice of audiobook narrator was questionable. This story is told from the perspective of teenagers, and having a middle-aged dude narrate it...did not sound right. Furthermore, the voices the narrator did for the different characters were spotty. I was expecting to be able to tell who was talking from the different sorts of cadences and accents he was giving the different characters, but, especially when two characters were having a back and forth dialogue, their voices started blurring together and it go difficult to tell them apart.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Suicide, and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, and Hate crime
Minor: Racism