The premise of this story fascinated me. At a wedding in New York, without warning, a young person sits down and does not get up again and this begins happening all over the world. The question of whether this is a personal choice or whether it is enforced runs throughout the novel.

For me, this book didn’t quite tie up all the loose ends. The pandemic became a minor story and I wanted a more satisfying conclusion.

Where this author excels, however, is in bringing her main characters to life. Andrew’s story fascinated me and how it intertwined with Yun’s made for a compelling read.

This was a great concept, especially post-pandemic, and it was really strong up until three quarters of the way through when I felt it lost its way and became a bit of a drag. Some of the characters didn’t feel very well developed either so I ended up getting a bit confused at points.

The book was as good as the cover so take from that what you will..

Many thanks to Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Are you happy now drew me in with that beautiful cover, I mean can we talk about it..? I just love it that. Reviews of Hanna's newest novel described a book similar to that of Sally Rooney's work mixed in with a bizarre end of the world type drama. A virus appears to be infecting more and more people every day.. to say I was keen to read this was an understatement.

I absolutely loved this book which focuses on human relationships, romantic relationships that begin at a time of uncertainty, change and fear. The writing in are you happy now is beautiful, it was such an immersive experience getting caught up in the intertwining relationships between Emory, Yun, Andrew and Fin.

Questions arose such as were the characters involved with each other due to the fear of the virus around them causing people to literally sit down and become completely unresponsive before eventually dying after 1-2 weeks or did they have genuine connections that would have blossomed regardless of the end of the world vibes.

Yun and Andrew are pretty much are main main characters, and over the two of them I favored Yun because there was so much not to like about him, he was so human, he didn't know what he needed and who from. He struggled with self doubt, second guessing the past, questioning everything about his life, it was really relatable.

It was such a strange blend of genres which I have never read anything quite like before, thriller, romance, lit fic, emotional and heart warming.. I think this will be a bit hit in 2023. It was beautiful book about the communication between humans with a back drop of a virus related to mental health in the modern world.

I devoured this book! I thought the premise was really intriguing and quite like that the mystery behind it is not quite resolved in the end. Loved the various character designs and development (except for Yun, which unfortunately I grew to dislike more and more!). Will keep an eye out for Jameson's other novels!

I really wanted to like this book, but it was such a disappointment!

The concept is great - a pandemic taking over where people sit down and basically never get back up. One of the first known cases happens at a wedding that our central characters are attending. As the illness spreads, I was hoping that one of the characters, who is a journalist, would stop at nothing to find out what was causing it. However, we never find out, and the book descends into a Sally Rooney-esque study of relationships, but without any of them having a single redeemable quality or a reason to keep the reader on side. All the characters seemed really unlikeable.

Unfortunately, I lost interest about halfway through. I kept going in the hope that it would get better and something would be uncovered, but it just got worse. Such a shame as it had real promise.

I wanted to like this much more than I did.
The central premise of a mysterious pandemic lured me in, but then became something completely different than I expected, and maybe that put me in a different frame of mind to be able to fully embrace the novel.

Certainly, it’s well written. But it’s ultimately just too depressing.! I found myself losing patience with the characters and their complete. Inability to just be happy with literally anything. Possibly this is exactly what Jameson was trying to explore, but just because something is well-observed doesn’t make it entertaining, at least not for me

I didn't get into this one in the same way I had Jameson's previous book. It may simply be that I've read too many books about end of the world pandemics at this point!

Thank you NetGalley for yhe opportunity to read this book.

A fantastic story which starts at a wedding but has so much more than that. There is love, romance, unrequited love and then at the heart of it all there is a dystopian pandemic.

There was something about this book that kept me reading despite having a sizeable migraine!

This book was strange, and difficult, in the best way. Set in a post-pandemic dystopian world, where a new world-ending force waves its way through the population, the book follows 4 main characters and their lives as they unfold during this new "pandemic". It was very cleverly written, realistic from the point of view that the story was still made up of the trajectories of the characters' lives, their friendships, worklives, activities and relationships, and more so as the wave of deaths dropped, assimilated to the way that the covid pandemic was perceived at least from my perspective. From a psychological perspective, the background star of this book, the new pandemic, is interesting to unpack though made a little frustrating by the fact that Jameson had not conclusively revealed the nature or cause of this wave. I always feel a little torn about endings and answers that are lead but not defined by the author, and left to the reader to interpret in their own way. I loved it but hated it at the same time. It left me feeling itchy in an unfinished sort of way, but that was probably very cleverly the entire point of the ending, as it packs the punch of the underlying feeling of so many characters throughout the narrative. Very literarily satisfying in that way.

Come in... sit down... take the weight off your feet...

We join this story as a strange new pandemic starts to hit people. People living their ordinary lives suddenly sit down and never get up again. This causes shock waves across communities - but this book in many ways is about the impact on a small group of people and how they see themselves and others.

This is a story about relationships and how we live our lives. Do we continue living the lives we might have just fallen into or do we make the harder choice? Do we choose to sit down - or can we finally stand up? It's time to find out.

"Are you Happy Now" was compelling reading in many ways. I'm stuck between a three stars and a four stars rating. The story itself, about a bizarre pandemic-like wave of catatonia leading to death, is four-star. Unfortunately for me, the book seems inhabited entirely by two star characters. I do believe a lot of people will absolutely love this book however. A special thank you to Penguin General UK and NetGalley for a no-obligation advance review copy.

This book was just an ok read for me and didn't keep me gripped at all. Probably just not my sort of book

Another masterpiece by Hanna Jameson.
I loved The Last and was very excited to be offered the chance to read Are You Happy Now. Set in the modern world, Are You Happy Now follows Yun, Emory, Andrew, and Fin as they navigate a new phenomenon rippling through the world. People are sitting down and not getting up again, seemingly giving up on their lives.
Tenderly written, I found this captivating and moving. Yun and Emory, Andrew and Fin. Each one of them has stayed with me, and I thought a lot about them after I finished reading. It is a masterful display of clever, poignant writing. I can't wait to see what Jameson writes next.

What a weird book this is! Seemingly well written, but with a very thin plot that doesn't seem to go anywhere much.

Yes, mental health can be a killer and can inflict pain on anyone, anywhere, but it just seemed to trivialise this very real issue.

Emory, Yun and even Andrew seemed to be capable of ignoring the rest of the world and pretending that nothing else mattered to them. This is bizarre as you can't then easily warm to the characters, or grasp the plot.

Description of the book held promise, but ultimately this wasn't lived up to.

I adored this novel just as much as I did Jameson’s last novel The Last. It follows a small cast of characters navigating their every day lives throughout a strange pandemic-like situation that I can’t give too many details on without spoiling the story. The characters were 3 dimensional and an ever-present sense of dread keeps the story taut with anxiety. So good!

This is an intriguing book set amidst a strange 'plague' where people seemingly become so overwhelmed by life they simply stop. The main 4 characters witness the start of this illness at a wedding where none of them seem comfortable in their own lives or with the choices they've made so far. The book sits with their discomfort and experiences as they try to make sense of the new world around them and find their own peace. It's a book which is happy for you not to always like the characters or agree with their choices but urges you to understand their decisions. (Copy received from Netgalley in return for an honest review)

This book sounded really interesting - a sweeping across the world of people just giving up…. Unfortunately it was incredibly drawn out and I couldn’t find one character I actually liked. The pace of the book felt off and it was more about the relationships than the pandemic. Really struggled to finish but loved the idea.

I picked this because it seemed to be a dystopian/pandemic novel, but it doesn't quite fit either. there is a sort of pandemic sweeping the US and parts of the world, but it seems to a mental-health pandemic - people are just giving up. Our four characters, Yun, Emory, Andrew and Fin meet at a wedding where one of the guests suddenly sits down and is unable to get up, striking out at anyone who tries to help her to get up. Two weeks later she is dead and all around the world people of all ages and ethnicities are just sitting down - giving up. Yun and Emory start a relationship as does Andrew and Fin. In a world that is struggling to understand exactly what is happening, these four navigate their lives and try to decide what everything means. This book didn't 'grab' me as much as I was hoping that it would, but I think that is because I could not relate to these characters. Yun, Emory and Fin are all in their early 20s and so I think someone younger than I would be able to relate to them more easily. In fact, I found Yun so annoying - why on earth did Emory hook up with him? That said, I did like the portrayal of how this 'illness' affected every aspect of life.

The Last by Hanna Jameson is one of my all time favourite books so I was really excited to have the opportunity to read her newest book pre-release! Unfortunately this one did not live up to expectations in the slightest.

The synopsis drew me in and I was expecting a fast-paced, unique thriller. What I got instead, was a Sally Rooney-esque novel that hardly even focused on the crazy pandemic explained in the blurb. Most of this book consisted of ramblings about the boring relationships between people.

Overall, this had so much potential but ended up being a massive flop.

At a New York City wedding, on a sweltering summer night, four people are trying to be happy.

Yun has everything he ever wanted, but somehow it's never enough.
Emory is finally making her mark, but feels the shame more than the success.
Andrew is trying to be honest, but has lied to himself his whole life.
Fin can't resist falling in love, but can't help wrecking it all either.

And then the world begins to end. The four of them watch as one of the wedding guests sits down and refuses to get back up. Soon it's happening across the world. Is it a choice or an illness?

Because how can anyone be happy in a world where the only choice is to feel everything - or nothing at all?

This book seems to try and explain the question of mental health, our own free will, and a pandemic of sorts, yet it fails to deliver on any of them. Instead we have a delightful ramble of literary fiction, with no real answers.

While this was so different from my usual reads, and different still from the usual literary or speculative fiction that I read, i didn't enjoy it, not in the way that has me sinking into it, devouring it, carrying it around in my head for days.

Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this book in return for my honest review.