More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Summary from GoodReads

Part Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, part Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, Adam Silvera's extraordinary debut novel offers a unique confrontation of race, class and sexuality during one charged near-future summer in the Bronx.

When it first gets announced, the Leteo Institute's memory-alteration procedure seems too good to be true to Aaron Soto—miracle cure-alls don't tend to pop up in the Bronx projects. Aaron can't forget how he's grown up poor, how his friends all seem to shrug him off, and how his father committed suicide in their one bedroom apartment. He has the support of his patient girlfriend, if not necessarily his distant brother and overworked mother, but it's not enough.  

Then Thomas shows up. He doesn't mind Aaron's obsession over the Scorpius Hawthorne books and has a sweet movie set-up on his roof. There are nicknames. Aaron's not only able to be himself, but happiness feels easy with Thomas. The love Aaron discovers may cost him what's left of his life, but since Aaron can't suddenly stop being gay Leteo may be the only way out.




This book! What can I say about this book!? It made me laugh for the most part, but from a point onward I took a ride through Sobbing-land.

Aaron is a funny, easy-going guy with a caring girlfriend and kind-of-good friends. When he meets Thomas, after Aaron's girlfriend Gen leaves for three weeks, new feelings slowly bud within Aaron, but nothing is as it seems.
Despite dealing with his father's death and living in a world where you can have a procedure to forget painful memories, Aaaron tries to survive trough his family's emotional distress, his horrible (because all of them were jerks) friends as also his feelings for Thomas.

There was a major plot twist after a point which left me astonished and the reveals which happened after there were so, so sad, my heart ached for Aaron. Yes, his choices were selfish, but despite having a caring mother who supported him through everything, even her fell into wrong choices.

The ending gutted me; I can't even fathom living like Aaron, but he still became such a optimistic boy, which will always have a place in my bookish heart.






About the author:

Adam Silvera was born and raised in the Bronx. He has worked in the publishing industry as a children's bookseller, marketing assistant at a literary development company, and book reviewer of children's and young adult novels. His debut novel, More Happy Than Not, received multiple starred reviews and is a New York Times bestseller, and Adam was selected as a Publishers Weekly Flying Start. He writes full-time in New York City and is tall for no reason.

Represented by Brooks Sherman of the Bent Agency.