At a New York City wedding, on a sweltering summer night, four people are trying to be happy.

Yun has everything he ever wanted, but somehow it's never enough.
Emory is finally making her mark, but feels the shame more than the success.
Andrew is trying to be honest, but has lied to himself his whole life.
Fin can't resist falling in love, but can't help wrecking it all either.

And then the world begins to end. The four of them watch as one of the wedding guests sits down and refuses to get back up. Soon it's happening across the world. Is it a choice or an illness?

Because how can anyone be happy in a world where the only choice is to feel everything - or nothing at all?

***

Speculative, reflective, and emotional, 'Are You Happy Now?' has a fascinating premise and seems to be trying to tackle the questions of free will, mental health, and a different kind of pandemic. I love speculative fiction, and I usually don't mind when plots are meandering and don't come to any sort of fixed conclusion. It's all part of the journey.

However, while Jameson's premise starts out strong, it fails to commit to a fixed idea. I spent a lot of the book willing it to move faster, or for something to happen, and waiting for an actual explanation for what was happening. Unlike our real pandemic, this never comes.

That being said, I enjoyed the relationships between Andrew, Fin, and Yun, even if I wanted more depth from Emory. The middle third is definitely the strongest part of the book, and honestly, I'd reread that section independently of the rest of the novel again.

While 'Are You Happy Now?' wasn't for me, I hope it finds its audience and I'll still check out Jameson's work in the future.

I did not enjoy this book. There was an awful lot of bad language and it was just boring.
I had to skim through the second half just to see how it ended and that was a disappointment too.

This was my first time reading Hanna Jameson and I’m so glad I did! Her characters and their relationships felt so real. I’m going to go back and read The Last now….

I loved it! Characters you immediately empathise with and relate to and a really believable dystopian setting. The slow reveal of what is happening works really well and I loved the relationships in the novel too.

I know this is an oxymoron but I really enjoyed this realistic dystopian novel. The writing style was great.

3.5 stars


What do you do, when suddenly without cause, people sit down,become unresponsive, and never recover?
It seems you get on with your life.
These characters do at least.
The backdrop of a world in crisis never dominates the human relationships , the good and the bad parts.
I genuinely liked all of these characters,and I felt like I was living with a bit of a ticking bomb watching their daily lives.

An enjoyable read.