Member Review

A dystopian near future YA book that takes the reader on a rollercoaster ride through the lives of teenagers chosen to have their unhappy lives transformed.

HappyHead is a timely book that explores the contemporary concerns of the disengaged youth, caused by solitary lives driven by online living and pressure to be other than you are.
Following selection, participants are challenged to complete increasingly dangerous tasks, working together in allotted teams until only the most successful survive. Seb surprises himself by excelling, but what criteria are really being used and what will happen to those that fail...falling down the rankings?

Silver has created an interesting premise with echoes of Squid Game or The Hunger Games. As the stakes are raised, reality questioned and a realisation that perhaps those attributes prized at the retreat are not necessarily the best that human nature has to offer.