More Happy Than Not Review

*This books deals with the topic of suicide, depression, and drugs*

More Happy Than Not is the debut novel of Adam Silvera and follows a boy named Aaron who lives in a rough part of NYC. During the story, he meets a guy named Thomas and starts developing feelings for him. When he gets denied, he wants to have a memory altering surgery to help him forget about Thomas and being gay. This story is quite emotional and follows a young man who can't quite accept himself though others have.

This book got quite a lot of hype when it came out and I expected it to live up to it but for me it did not. I'm not really into the writing style of this book. There were certain phrases repeated 14-15 times and when it's a book that's only 200 and something pages, it get a little annoying. Now, I know that it is set in the Bronx and people talk kind of different since it's not the best part of town. I lived in New York for most of my life so I do know, but it was still annoying at how hard it seemed to be ghettoish. The plot twist that so many people were shocked about didn't shock me in the least. I guessed it long before it happened. It just seemed to obvious.

I thought the main character was extremely young sounding. For all the things he had been through, he didn't seem to mature at all. Instead, he decided to run from his problems and forget that it ever happened. I just didn't agree with the idea that someone could decide that they were going to forget something that happened in their lives. It left a bad taste in my mouth. None of the characters wowed me. They were your average kids that grew up on the wrong side of the tracks and are a little messed up from it. Aaron's obsession with Thomas was a little weird. If the kid isn't gay, I don't know why you're trying to convince him that he just hasn't come out yet and you'll wait for him. You can't force your sexuality on someone else no matter how much you want that person. This was happening non-stop in the book: Gen with Aaron, Aaron with Thomas, and Aaron with Collin.

I'm the minority here with this book because it does have such amazing reviews and I'm sitting here wondering how on earth it got as many good reviews as it did. Maybe I'm picky and just looking for things not to like. Who knows. I wouldn't say it's a fantastic LGBTQ+ book. Don't listen to me though.

2/5 Stars