More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera (2015)

Aaron is finally starting to jump back into a normal life months after the suicide of his father. He’s on summer break, has a great girlfriend, and lives in a time when science is rebuilding everything, including memories. Still, things are shaken up at home, and he wants nothing more that to be away from it. So he spends his days play games in the Bronx, where he meets Thomas. Thomas is like no one Aaron has ever met before, and they automatically start an epic friendship. They’re both creatively charged, and surprisingly, are able to have really honest conversations. Aaron can’t get enough of Thomas, and even though he’s totally into his girlfriend, can’t help but develop a crush on Thomas. The only problem: Aaron’s pretty sure he’s straight, and Thomas definitely is. Aaron’s feelings can’t be ignored, though, and brings up a thousand new questions. Already a summer of healing, Aaron goes on a quest to explore his sexuality, and discovers that love comes in so many forms.

I have heard so many good things about More Happy Than Not, and simply had to read it. Plus, I kind of have an unreasonable crush on Adam Silvera. He’s literally the most adorable human, and I’m obsessed with his Youtube and Twitter. So, I was expecting a lot out of this guy to write a pretty great book, and, as we all guessed, he succeeded.

It took 50 or 60 pages into really get into the story. I think the main reason this happened was because the writing style is very specific to Adam Silvera. Aaron’s narrative talked a lot to the reader, which is something I’m not used to, but liked. In general, I super appreciated Aaron’s character. To start with, he was so honest and I loved it. Sometimes, when I’m reading a character, I think there’s no way they would exist in the real world, but with Aaron, I could see him living across the street from me. He talked a lot about the little aspects of life, and it was obvious how much he cared about the workings of his life. I also really enjoyed his friendship with Thomas. I thought it was so pure, and reminded me a lot of the friendships Andrew Smith writes (which was obviously a good thing).

As you could probably tell, More Happy Than Not talks a lot about sexuality. I actually heard in an interview with Adam Silvera that he wrote this book based on what would happen if he came out as gay at sixteen, which I thought was pretty cool. A big theme throughout the whole story is discussing whether we have a choice over our sexulity. What I’ve collected through life, and what a lot of people have, is that our sexuality is not chosen. Aaron goes through a whole period when he really fights the fact that he like guys, and it was really heartwarming to see him go through this path of self acceptance (totally almost spelled that word with a E). I also felt that the story had an underlining message against psychological treatments that “cure” homosexuality, which I hope we can all agree is never good. Even though this book was written in 2015, I think this message will prevail for ages, especially right now when we actual have a vice presidential nominee for these kinds of treatments

More Happy Than Not was hands down one of the best debuts I’ve read, and introduced some really important questions that I think everyone needs to answer for themselves. Also, I simply cannot wait for his new book, History Is All You Left Me, which comes out in January 2017.                  

4 Stars