Thank you very much for allowing me to read this wonderful book .
I must confess, I’ve not previously heard of this author but after reading this book, I will be adding them to my list of authors to watch out for in the future. It Captivated me from the first page to the last.

Sadly this book didn't hit the mark for me - there was nothing to hold my interest. The premise seemed interesting but the execution failed somewhat.

Thank you to NetGalley and Viking for the e-arc.

Unfortunately I had to DNF this book as I could not get into it the few times I tried. I couldn’t connect with the characters and the pace was too slow for me.

Thank you to Penguin General and NetGalley for the complimentary copy of Are You Happy Now by Hanna Jameson.

A wedding guest sits down and doesn't get up again. This is not an isolated case, as around the world others are afflicted by the mysterious condition. There is no explanation for the phenomena but it results in widespread fear.

The book tells the story of love in partnerships and relationships with friends and others.

Although I did enjoy the book, I would have preferred more information around the condition that afflicted people, and how this impacted the lives of the central characters.

This book was set during a pandemic, but with a twist. This book was outside my usual reading genre but I like to try new things. Unfortunately I didn’t love love this book but that’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it for what it was. I do have to say the author did a great job exploring the complexities of humans and their interactions/behaviour. I’d still recommend the book to people who like similar styles.

An intriguing concept, but it didn’t quite hit the mark for me. The premise held promise, and the writing was engaging at times, but the pacing felt uneven, and the plot didn’t fully deliver on its potential. While there were moments of insight and creativity, the story struggled to maintain momentum, leaving me feeling somewhat disconnected.

What better way to start a new year than with a near future, dystopian story about people sitting down and giving up on life because the world is just so sh*t.

Yes you read that right, Are You Happy Now, follows an anthology of characters adapting to a new time where people are just giving up on life and refusing to keep living because they want to. At first they think it’s a sickness or a pandemic and soon it just becomes part of every day life.

We experience each characters inner workings, their thoughts on the state of the world and life, and you do spend most of the book wondering who might just stop.

I thought this was really thought provoking, especially when in current times the world can feel too much these days. There are so many major, wide world, events going on and it can sometimes feel like a losing battle trying to just carry on with your everyday, seemingly small, life.

But please don’t feel despondent, positive change is a hard fought for and won thing and there are plenty of examples of it happening historically. And It think this book really makes you think about what is around that it is worth carrying on for, even the smallest of moments, that can make it all seem ok.

A dystopian fiction based around mental health pandemic. It is very dark and at some points hard to read. But it hits hard for a reason.

Thank you for my copy.

DNF. I don't know if I was slumpy or what but I just found this... fine? It wasn't bad but I also didn't really care about it either. DNF'd as life is too short to read books that aren't engaging or entertaining me

An original novel. Compelling characters and intriguing plot. Really loved it. I thought the end was exquisite.

I couldn't read this as an ebook for some reason so will get it when it comes out! Sorry! (Leaving a 4 star review to be fair.)

This book had a very interesting concept, and I was very interested in reading it, but unfortunately I got into a reading slump somewhere in the middle. I finally had a chance to finish it and it was a great read in the end, I am glad I got to finish it.

Unfortunately this book wasn’t for me but I am really grateful for the opportunity to try it for myself. I wasn’t hooked in and found it difficult to engage with the characters but I am sure that other readers who enjoy this subject will appreciate it more than I did.

This was not great. It was very confusing. Written as if it was a first draft of some idea of a book but not put into any order and with lots of bits of the story missing. There didn't seem to be any point to any of it, it was just mindless ramblings, or maybe that was the point.

All in all, I did not enjoy it and certainly would not recommend to any of my friends

Tender, emotional, real, and apocalyptic. What a combination! I absolutely tore through this and can't wait to read what Jameson writes next

I might try reading this again in a few years as so many people seem to enjoy this maybe it was just bad timing. But! As it stands- this was not for me.
The concept was great! A pandemic, cool cool. A collection of what i first thought would be a pile of 'hot-mess' characters. A lovely synopsis and a beautiful cover...

So why 2 stars?

From the first page I couldn't get into this book - but I continued. I really wanted to find out what this was about and hopefully add to the sea of positive reviews!

The pacing was off, the characters were off and there was no connection to any of them, the ending seemed.. symbolic as there was no real explanations given. I could see what they were trying to do but this was disappointing.


Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for the ARC.

I am quite conflicted with how I feel towards this book. While I see its value in terms of toxic positivity it was quite hard to get into and I unfortunately never felt the need to pick the book up everytime I left it. I was not invested in the characters at all and I found myself annoyed at some points. The premise is very interesting and unique but I think it might have been the wrong time to read this book. it has such a dark mood that in my opinion slows it down and it has a very depressing tone which I should have expected but I was not ready for it. I would love to revisit this book at a better time! thank you netgalley for providing me with an early of this book!

I'm kind of unsure how I feel about this book. I've been sitting on the ending for a while now, and I still can't decide. In some aspects, I enjoyed the book, but I think mostly on a superficial level. Personally, I much more enjoy end of the world, pandemic, apocalypse type books when we find out the origin story. At this does take place at the very start of whatever is going on here. But this book is more about the human reaction to it, and how life sort of just carries on. Which is fair enough, if that's what the book is. But then without that aspect of it, it becomes a book about the characters, their reactions, their responses, the way that they change to this big event. And I don't think the characters were likable or relatable enough for that to carry the book on its own, at least in my opinion. Andrew was probably the character I liked most. But I have to keep going back to this really unique presentation of this disease or infection, this really weird and unexplained phenomena that kept happening and it was ultimately brushed to the side a bit. So while I do think it didn't live up to its whole potential, I did still enjoy most of the story on the whole.

This was such a wild read and a really compelling commentary on toxic positivity. Like, seriously, what would happen of we had to be positive all the time?

Thanks so much to Viking books and Netgalley for the advance copy of this novel.

I love a literary fiction dystopian novel, and Are You Happy Now delivers on that. It follows four people: Yun, who has everything he ever wanted but it isn't enough; Emory, who feels shame about her success; Andrew, trying to be honest after a life of lies; Fin, who has been unlucky in love. The world begins to end as all four attend a wedding.

I loved this book and watching the story unfold. It was SO fascinating, and gave me slight Emily St John Mandel vibes. I want to pick up more from this author!