neal shusterman

What if Happiness Was Contagious? All Better Now Reviewed

by Stefani

All Better Now by Neal Shusterman

Published: February 5, 2025 by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Buy this book at: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo

Synopsis:

An unprecedented condition is on the rise. It behaves like a virus, with the first symptom being a fever, but those who contract it experience long-term effects no one has ever seen; utter contentment. Soon after infection, people find the stress, depression, greed, and other negative feelings that used to weigh them down are gone.

Almost everyone revels in this mass unburdening. But people in power—who depend on malcontents tuning into their broadcasts, prey on the insecure to sell their products, and convince people they need more, new, faster, better everything—know this new state of being is bad for business. Soon, campaigns start up convincing people that being happy all the time is dangerous. There’s even a vaccine developed to rid people of their inner peace and get them back to normal because, surely, without anger or jealousy as motivators, productivity will grind to a halt and the world will be thrown into chaos.

It’s nearly impossible to determine the truth when everyone with a platform is pushing their own agendas, and two teens from very different backgrounds who’ve had their lives upended in different ways by the virus find themselves enmeshed in the center of a dangerous power play. Can they reveal the truth?

Rating:

Review:

When I read the synopsis for this book I was interested, but wary. Given the fact that it was published in 2025, it had the capacity to be very preachy about any and all things COVID19. But, Neal Shusterman is an author that has earned by trust in taking topics that could be preachy but are not while in his capable hands. So I dove in and I loved this book.

It was such a unique concept. What would society do with a virus that seems to make your life better? Sure, you still might die from the virus. But if you don’t, you’ll just be blissfully content and at ease with the world. What does society do with something like that? How would different categories of humans react?

In this book, Shusterman explores all of these possible reactions. You have a kid who is desperately depressed and figures that even if he dies from the virus, he’s still better off than he is now so, why not get it? There are people who are desperate to avoid infection because they can’t imagine a world where their emotions are limited in such a way against their will. There are people who have made their fortunes by being ruthless and uncaring about their fellow humans, and now need to make provisions about what will happen to their assets if they get this virus and suddenly feel altruistic. You have people who are so blissfully happy that they feel everyone in the world should get the virus.

Now take all of these stories and focus on 3-4 of the best ones and you end up with this book. I really enjoyed every single storyline and could easily imagine that these are real reactions of real people. I loved it. My only complaint on the character side was that a few of them were desperately annoying, even though their story was interesting. I didn’t really connect with any of the characters either, they were more of a vehicle for the plot than anything else.

It ends on a cliffhanger…of sorts, and there is a 2nd book due to be published at some point in the future. I look forward to seeing where else this story can go because this was a fun ride. I really enjoy how Neal Shusterman’s brain works, he is an automatic read for me these days.

New Releases Wednesday – May 8, 2024

by Stefani

Shock the Monkey by Neal Shusterman and Eric Elfman

Published: May 7, 2024 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Check this book out: Goodreads

Synopsis:

Noah Prime must set out to save his friends and the universe once again in this jaw-dropping sequel to the New York Times bestselling novel, I Am the Walrus . 

Noah Prime thought he was no more running, no more murderous aliens, and absolutely no more saving the world. The day he went into hiding should have put an end to it. But staying away is no longer an option when he winds up embroiled in yet another intergalactic calamity. This time, it’s courtesy of his usually level-headed friend Ogden, whose crush on the most popular girl in school, Claire, leads him to buy her a star for her birthday.

However, this heart-warming gesture ends up having disastrous consequences when it turns out the star is real—as in home to a gazillion aliens real. And it’s not long before these creatures have swooped down to Earth to abduct Claire and take her back to their planet—or rather her planet—as its new owner.

Now it’s up to Noah and his quick-changing animal abilities to help his friends find her. But with dangerous forces still out there and a perilous journey ahead, will Noah be able to find Claire before she meets her untimely doom? Even if it means putting his friends in more danger than ever before?

This action-packed, laugh-out-loud sci-fi adventure is perfect for fans of Eoin Colfer and Rick Riordan.

Why I want to read it: You might remember Neal Shusterman from the Unwind series. I read the first book of that series back in 2022, it was honestly one of the most disturbing books I’ve ever read. It left me thinking about it for days after I closed the cover. Remembering it still leaves me with the creepy crawlies. You can check out that review here. So, when I saw a new book from Neal Shusterman it went immediately on my Want To Read list. And a mental note that I need to get back to the Unwind series, I was interested to see where it went.

The Family Experiment by John Marrs

Published: May 9, 2024 by Macmillan

Check this book out at: Goodreads

Synopsis:

The world’s population is soaring, creating overcrowded cities and an economic crisis. And in the UK, breaking point has arrived. A growing number of people can no longer afford to start families let alone raise them.

But for those desperate to experience parenthood, there is an alternative. For a monthly subscription fee, clients can create a virtual child from scratch who they can access via the metaverse and a VR headset. To launch this new initiative, the company behind Virtual Children has created a reality tv show. It will follow ten couples as they raise a Virtual Child from birth to the age of eighteen but in a condensed nine-month time period. The prize: the right to keep their virtual child or risk it all for the chance of a real baby . . .

Set in the same universe as John Marrs’s bestselling novel The One and The Marriage Act, The Family Experiment is a dark and twisted thriller about the ultimate ‘tamagotchi’ – a virtual baby.

Why I Want to Read It: I love a good dystopian novel. Because it may seem like everything is rosy at first, but it’s going to go wrong. We all know it is going to go wrong, because that’s what dystopian fiction means. The question is always, how will it go wrong? When will it go wrong? What will be the collateral damage? This one looks like a perfect example of this kind of fiction. It takes real world issues and the extrapolates them to an extreme to examine what could happen. I love it. I want it.

Unwind by Neal Shusterman

by Stefani

unwindUnwind by Neal Shusterman

Published November 6th, 2007 by Simon & Schuster

Buy this book at: Book Depository / Books A Million / Amazon / B&N

 

Synopsis:

Connor, Risa, and Lev are running for their lives.

The Second Civil War was fought over reproductive rights. The chilling resolution: Life is inviolable from the moment of conception until age thirteen. Between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, however, parents can have their child “unwound,” whereby all of the child’s organs are transplanted into different donors, so life doesn’t technically end. Connor is too difficult for his parents to control. Risa, a ward of the state is not enough to be kept alive. And Lev is a tithe, a child conceived and raised to be unwound. Together, they may have a chance to escape and to survive.

 

Rating: 4 star

 

Review:

There are very few books that I have ever read in my nearly 30 years that I know will stay with me, this is one to be added to that list.  I know that I will have nightmares tonight and yet I am still glad that I read it.  It made me think about some deep and profound things that I wasn’t expecting.  Unfortunately, I have no idea how to review this book either.  At least I didn’t until I saw a news report today that disturbed me just as much as this book, and then I got an idea.

This book deals with the extreme version of something we see in society today.  Everyone is aware of the endless, circular debates between the pro-choice and pro-life camps.  It’s gotten to the point of insanity.  This novel takes that debate and extrapolates it as far as it will go.  What would  happen if this was the compromise?  Can’t touch a life from conception to 13.  But if your kid isn’t really living up to expectations then you can just “unwind” them and have them harvested for transplant parts.  Pro-choice can be happy because you allowed the parents a choice about whether to be a parent or not.  Pro-life people are happy because technically that life lives on in those that receive their harvested parts.  I was expecting for this to be a projection that went too far into the unbelievable.  Speculative fiction is at its best when you know that it’s very far out there but you could imagine how it could get there.  By the end, I can see the “how it could get there” and it’s frightening.

Unwind isn’t a normal kind of horror book and yet it horrified me all the same.  The horror in this book is more subtle.  It’s that creepy crawly feeling on your arms.  It’s that pit in your stomach that you can’t shake.  It’s that horrible feeling that you don’t want to read the next page but can’t help yourself.  There was one scene in particular that led me to not eat my lunch and just stare at the book blankly for a good hour, absolutely horrified at what I was reading.  Anyone who has read the book knows exactly which scene I’m talking about, so I won’t elaborate.

As far out of the realm of possibility as this notion seems, I couldn’t help but think is it really THAT out there?  I don’t mean for this to turn into a debate on abortion and my own personal feelings on abortion (whether for or against) are irrelevant for the purposes of this review.  But this book made me ponder the issue in ways I never thought I would.  Have we really lost any value on life?  Could we lose that respect for life this badly?  Planned Parenthood performs abortions every 94 seconds, despite the founder of the organization being an avowed racist who wanted to exterminate blacks through abortion.  Okay, fine, we can’t throw out the whole organization because it was started with bad intentions right?  I suppose that’s fair!  But then we have the constant debate over when is it abortion and when is it murder?  Where is that line?  Society doesn’t really have a clear answer for that, and so the vitriol from either side continues.  But I can’t help but wonder how far down this particularly creepy road we are when I see pictures of completely empty courtrooms at the trial of abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell.  He is charged with 8 murders, 7 viable infants that he performed “partial birth abortions” on by cutting their spinal cords while partially out the birth canal, and 1 mother whom he gave a lethal dose of Demerol during an abortion procedure.  The testimony is sensational, the accounts of the crimes are lurid, and the charges are horrific.  Yet, the media isn’t salivating all over this trial, it isn’t even giving it air time.  Why?  Is it because it treads too close to the abortion debate for comfort?  Or perhaps is it because, as a society, the value we place on human life is dwindling?  I don’t know, the answer, but it troubles me.  Just like this book troubled me.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/alleged-victim-calls-philadelphia-abortion-doctor-kermit-gosnell/story?id=12731387#.UWi8akrDmSo

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-kermit-gosnell-why-so-little-coverage-20130412,0,4790500.story

I believe this is a book that needs to be read and needs to be discussed.  I couldn’t put it down and it will be a long time before it leaves my thoughts.