Adam Silvera’s debut novel takes on the delicate balancing act of covering some of life’s weightiest of topics: suicide, coming out, trauma, grief and urban poverty. More Happy Than Not follows 16-year-old Aaron Soto in the wake of his father’s death, as he’s consumed by the tragedy while also working through surprising new feelings for a boy he’s recently met. Determined to shake away the attraction, the teenager looks into a mind-altering experiment that promises to erase painful memories. The novel, released in 2015, is just as much speculative fiction as it is a meditation on the relationship between hardship and happiness. Fully in control of the ambition of its plot, Silvera’s best seller marries the page-turning elements of a sci-fi narrative with incisive commentary on sexuality. —Annabel Gutterman
Buy Now: More Happy Than Not on Bookshop | Amazon
- The Real Reason Florida Wants to Ban AP African-American Studies, According to an Architect of the Course
- Column: Tyre Nichols' Killing Is The Result of a Diseased Culture
- Without Evusheld, Immunocompromised People Are on Their Own Against COVID-19
- Here Are All the Movies and TV Shows That Make Up the New DCU
- TikTok's 'De-Influencing' Trend Is Here to Tell You What Stuff You Don't Need to Buy
- Column: America Goes About Juvenile Crime Sentencing All Wrong
- Why Your Tax Refund May Be Lower This Year
- Brazil Wants to Abandon a 34,000-Ton Ship at Sea. It Would be an Environmental Disaster
- The 5 Best New TV Shows Our Critic Watched in January 2023
