All Better Now by Neal Shusterman @NealShusterman ‏@simonandschuster.bsky.social @RobinBridgeFour

Posted January 27, 2025 by Robin in Book Review / 6 Comments

Review copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.


All Better Now by Neal Shusterman @NealShusterman ‏@simonandschuster.bsky.social @RobinBridgeFourAll Better Now by Neal Shusterman
Published by Simon & Schuster on February 4, 2025
Genres: Science Fiction, Young Adult, Dystopia
Pages: 525
Format: ARC
Source: NetGalley
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One StarOne StarOne StarOne StarOne Star

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?

Neal Shusterman’s books have almost always had something in them that make me think that this could be a really weird and warped version of the world we live in.  He is really good at taking a what if scenario and pushing it to an extreme.  All Better Now is the first book in a continuing, yet to be named series, covering another pandemic.  Only the after effects of this illness leave you changed forever.  If you survive Crown Royale you become Happy.

I’m going to just throw out there that I don’t know that I would have read another book about a pandemic by most authors.  I feel a little PTSD anytime someone brings up the last one or the prospect of another.  No matter who you are I think it impacted your life in some way and society as a whole in a big ways.  But, my experience with the last Pandemic made this book feel all the more plausible and added to the foundations for emotional impact I think is needed for this story to really work for reader to connect to it.

Told from multiple PoVs we follow different characters as some try to share the illness so all can feel what it is like to have things like fear, ambition, hatred and selfishness fall away from them.  Others are desperate to thwart the virus that is causing Billionaires to give up their wealth, consumers to stop buying new goods when the old ones are just fine and people who would rather take a bullet than shoot one.  We get glimpses into the lives of those who have recovered and how their lives changed.  Others that live in isolation and desperation to make sure they never get the virus, afraid of how it could change them.

I was captivated by this story.  The characters all have different motivations, everyone thinks they are doing the right thing and most have good intentions.  Mariel lost her mother to the virus but never got it herself.  She and Rón, a recovery, are traveling across the country trying to find a new purpose in their lives and hide Rón from his father.  Rón has a mission and no time to be locked away for his safety.  The question is will Rón’s mission drive a wedge between him and the girl he has come to love.

Morgan is everything that the recovered are not.  She is conniving, driven, cruel and willing to do just about anything to win.  Because of someone’s need to pass on a legacy she is also in control of a large amount of money, companies and a research center.  Her goal is to combat the Crown Royale virus, but the cure might we worse than the disease.

He and Morgan were alike, in a way.  Both had powerful, all-consuming agendas.  But that was where the similarity ended — because, while Rón was motivated to fix a broken world, Morgan was motivated to take credit for fixing a broken world.  A subtle difference, with miles between. 

I enjoyed this book so much.  Because of the multiple PoVs I found that the story moved along fast and it was interesting to see into the minds of all of the major players in the book.  Neal Shusterman’s writing is always great with solid one liners and things to make the reader ponder.  I look forward to seeing where he takes the story as I think this will be on par with two of my series Unwind and Arc of the Scythe.

The beauty of disinformation was that the more outlandish it was, them more people would believe it, because it was fed by the public’s own paranoia.

About Neal Shusterman

Award-winning author Neal Shusterman grew up in Brooklyn, New York, where he began writing at an early age. After spending his junior and senior years of high school at the American School of Mexico City, Neal went on to UC Irvine, where he made his mark on the UCI swim team, and wrote a successful humor column. Within a year of graduating, he had his first book deal, and was hired to write a movie script.

In the years since, Neal has made his mark as a successful novelist, screenwriter, and television writer. As a full-time writer, he claims to be his own hardest task-master, always at work creating new stories to tell.

Neal Shusterman is the author of many novels for young adults, including Unwind, which was an ALA Best Book for Young Adults and a Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Readers, Everlost, and Downsiders, which was nominated for twelve state reading awards. He also writes screenplays for motion pictures and television shows such as Animorphs and Goosebumps.

Neal Shusterman lives in Southern California with his children Brendan, Jarrod, Joelle, and Erin, who are a constant source of inspiration!

Rating Breakdown
Plot
One StarOne StarOne StarOne StarHalf a Star
Writing
One StarOne StarOne StarOne StarOne Star
Characters
One StarOne StarOne StarOne StarOne Star
Dialogue
One StarOne StarOne StarOne StarOne Star
Overall: One StarOne StarOne StarOne StarOne Star
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Posted January 27, 2025 by Robin in Book Review / 6 Comments


6 responses to “All Better Now by Neal Shusterman

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