i enjoyed We Are All So Good at Smiling. i thought the narration was good and i appreciated that the author did the narration herself. the actual writing was very beautiful and interesting but i did have a hard time staying interested. that’s on me though, since it always happens with poetry audiobooks and novels in verse. i thought the subject matter was handled with a lot of care and although i wasn’t super invested in the magic aspect, i thought Whimsy and Faerry were good MCs and i enjoyed hearing their story. 3.5ish stars, rounding up to 4

"We Are All So Good At Smiling" by Amber McBride delves deep into the intricate landscape of clinical depression and trauma, offering a poignant exploration of healing through verse. Through the lens of the protagonist, Whimsy, readers are immersed in a world where magic intertwines with the raw realities of mental health struggles.

The narrative follows Whimsy's journey as she navigates the challenges of being in the hospital for her depression. However, it's her encounter with Faerry, a boy who shares her magical inclination, that sets the stage for a profound connection and mutual understanding. As their paths converge on Marsh Creek Lane, they confront not only their shared vulnerabilities but also the enigmatic allure of the forest lurking nearby.

McBride masterfully weaves themes of resilience, friendship, and confronting inner demons throughout the book. The Forest becomes a powerful symbol, whispering secrets and harboring both fearsome monsters and poignant truths. As Whimsy and Faerry confront their past traumas and fears, they embark on a journey of self-discovery and healing, unraveling layers of pain and uncovering hidden strengths.

The author's use of verse adds a lyrical quality to the narrative, enhancing the emotional depth of the story and inviting readers to experience the characters' inner turmoil and triumphs in a profoundly intimate way. "We Are All So Good At Smiling" is a compelling and thought-provoking read that resonates long after the final page, offering solace and hope to anyone grappling with their own demons. Amber McBride's novel is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the transformative power of empathy and connection.

Whimsical and tackles difficult topics elegantly. While I struggled to be fully invested in the story, it was a very pleasant listening experience,

I did not like this book. It was so weird. The whole book was trying to be one big metaphor and I had to think about it way too much. You'd think coming from someone who suffered from depression that I'd "get" this book, but I didn't.

Certainly a creative narrative that kept me guessing at the nature of reality. It is very literary, so everything is both a metaphor and meant to be taken literally. It's a bit hard to engage with the narrative since it's a bit strange but it is very well written.

I reviewed this book for School LIbrary Journal, a starred review:
Gr 9 Up–After her parents discover a list Whimsy wrote of ways to stop breathing, she is in the hospital again for clinical depression. She meets fellow patient Faerry, a boy who she perceives as having magical qualities. They subsequently discover they are neighbors, connecting over their intense poetry and their shared experience of being the only two Black kids around. No one understands they are sinking while they are smiling; when you are bruise-less, things are harder to explain. As they begin their healing journey together, they recognize their lives are interwoven by past trauma. The atmospheric imagery and metaphors throughout have such a strong and remarkable undercurrent in this novel-in-verse. The anthropomorphic forest evolves into setting as character. As Whimsy and Faerry push through the forest garden together, they face their demons as part of intricate and unique fairy-tale sequences that represent their layers of depression. Raw and fervent, these characters are cut open literally and figuratively to battle Sorrow, because the only way out is through. Hoodoo is intertwined as they unravel riddles to find the truth and the cause of their shared trauma. The author’s prologue invites readers into her own authentic experiences with depression, offers a nod to Lucille Clifton, and provides a content warning for clinical depression, self-harm, and suicide. McBride also features resources for mental health, a glossary of the fairy tales and folklore embodied within, and a playlist for Whimsy and Faerry.VERDICT This phenomenal novel-in-verse transports readers into an impassioned tale of heartache and hope that belongs on every bookshelf serving teens. Reviewed by Lisa Krok
*I listened to the audiobook after reading for the review and it was just as good the second time around! McBride narrates her own story emphatically and with the drama it deserves.

This author is an autobuy for me. As soon as I saw this book I just had to have it! I was not disappointed at all. I love this book. I loved all the different fairytales in the story. This book was beautiful! I am such a huge fan of playlists with books and this one has one with it. It is perfect for the book! I love the way the book was written in verse. Hearing it in the audio was fantastic. Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the audio arc in exchange for my honest review.

I’m not sure if this just wasn’t for me, because I’m not a huge poetry lover or what, but it just didn’t click with me.

We Are All So Good At Smiling by Ambre McBride was such a short but powerful read. Content warning: suicide, mental health, grief.

Whimsy is a hoodoo witch coping with so much grief and sorrow in her life. She relies on her magic and fairy tales to get her through. We open the novel with her being taken from these things and put in a hospital. There she meets Fairy, a fae with wings like the moon and a garden tattooed across his body. They are drawn to each other.

After they are released, they find out that they go to the same school and share a connection outside of what either of them are aware of. And they are connected to the woods, which have been enchanted and cursed, but the only way out is through.

I listened to the audiobook version of this book, and it was amazing. I could tell this book was written in verse, and I don’t expect anything less from a book as magical as this one. I really liked the way music was incorporated throughout, and the narrator was great.

Fairy tales from around the world and mythical elements are a fresh and interesting way to talk about mental health struggles. We also get to see Black characters in this way, which I thought was really cool. We also get to see the intersections between race (and being the only one or one of few) and mental health. And the writing was just so beautiful all around. I appreciated a teen book about mental health that didn’t center the hospital experience and highlighted the internal journey of working through grief and sorrow.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this book, but with caution. Although it mentions grief and suicide, I didn’t think the content was too graphic, and it was appropriate for teen readers. This was the first book that made me cry in a long time. Five stars for sure!

DNF at 80% — Yes, finishing a 3 hour audiobook at 80% means it’s less than an hour of my time, but my goodness, I couldn’t take a minute more. This book suffers an identity crisis. Reading the synopsis—magical realism meets mental illness in a novel in verse—I thought what’s not to love! Well, the answer is everything.

This book had too much going on with very little explanation. It would touch on mental illness and then jump to fairytale metaphors and then jump to the fantasy plot(?). It was just so disconnected. There was not enough explanation about the world we were put in, and it was just too many metaphors to sift through.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced listening copy in exchange for my honest review. I will still add this to my classroom because every book is for somebody, and this author is one I like.

I really enjoyed this audio version of a novel in verse about two magical teens whose lives are affected by clinical depression, self harm, and suicide ideation. Despite the heavy topics, the story is whimsical and includes a lot of fantasy and folklore from multiple cultures.

This audiobook is especially nice because it is read by the author. Through her tone and cadence she is able to convey a lot of emotion in her work and highlight the fact that it is a novel in verse.

I love a whimsical book and given that the main character’s name is Whimsy this should have been the case for this book. Unfortunately it just didn’t work for me. While I respect and admire the author and what she has done here, this book felt almost too much. Too many similes and metaphors, too much alliteration. I felt like I was drowning in writing techniques from my freshman year English class. There is no doubt that the writing uses beautiful words and that the narrator reads them eloquently but all in all if was too much for my taste.

I really loved the opening of We Are All So Good At Smiling. Whimsy is back in the hospital for treatment of clinical depression. She makes a friend there, Faerry, and describes several other patients as mythological creatures from various cultures and fairytales. It’s visual and gorgeous and I had high hopes for a poignant, emotional experience as I listened on some frosty winter walks in Toronto’s ravines.

This is a novel in verse, though, and that fact became very obvious with the audiobook. While there was music and special effects added, listening while not having a text copy to follow along with was difficult. There were clearly a lot of stylistic layout choices which just became a jumble of unconnected words through audio, and it was hard to decipher what were headings or simply singular lines.

I honestly would love to get a physical copy for a re-read, because it was a gorgeous story with important themes and a great book for anyone feeling disconnected from their body, or living with depression. Unfortunately, this is one of those times that the audiobook did not translate very well from prose.

Thank you for the ARC and opportunity to review this audiobook!

A different spin on clinical depression and mental health. We need to normalize mental health discussions! You are not alone.

This is a gorgeous book told in verse that translates beautifully into audio. It is instantly engaging and weaves a story and casts a spell on its readers. The story is of a girl and a boy and the secrets they share and the monsters they must vanquish to heal themselves. It is a story of depression and mental illness, a story of loss and healing. It is spellbinding.

Real rating 3.5


Now y’all know novels in verse are not my jam. This was actually hard for me to get through as well. I had no way of knowing how deeply this was going to end up touching me by the end. It was well worth the read.

Now the reason I don’t like novels in verse, is because they usually have so much imagery and double meanings and all the other things. And with my ADHD and me always having to do something else while I’m listening to a book and having it on super speed lol I sometimes miss a lot. Novels in verse force me to slow down, and that’s just what this book did. Now the writing style and the fantasy elements also had me stuck there too. Like this book was so lyrical and beautiful! I didn’t catch all the symbolism, but for what I did, I thought it was amazing.

Please be kind to yourself regarding this book tho. It depicts self-harm and suicide ideation/attempt. Please don’t read if this is something that can cause you to spiral. With that being said, this book took me through the ringer. I was in tears as soon as I figured out what was going on. It wasn’t that it was sad, it was more so that I hated that Whimsy felt that there was no way out. I hated that she felt so alone.

Then there’s the plot. This is where it gets tricky for me. Like I said, I’m not a novel in verse fan, so me not understanding what this was trying to say was probably a me problem, not a book problem, so I won’t say I didn’t enjoy it. The way this is told is so haunting and yet beautiful at the same time. I loved it. But what I got from it, is during her time there at the hospital for treatment, she’s beginning to come out of her depression, with the help of her new friend, Faerry. I do believe that he was in her mind, but that could be for you, the next reader, to decide. This is why they’re so hard for me. They have so much that is left out, and I have to make my own interpretation or get what they want me to get out of it. However, that’s not good for me. I find myself wondering if I guessed right on things all the time. I have Pure O OCD and let me tell you, I have a hard time letting random questions like that go.

This book was very much out of my wheelhouse, but with its amazing writing and the haunting words used to tell the story, this book touched me like I didn’t think it would. If there’s any books at all that have surprised me, it’s this one. A novel in verse about a teen who needs help? Doesn’t sound like me, but it worked oh so well!

I love when authors read their own books. It adds a special layer of something to the book., The emotions on this book are just extra. they're a new level. the tempo of this book is a bit harder to get into than some other books i've read recently and It might not be for me.

We Are All Good at Smiling is a haunting story of two friends who lost their siblings and blame themselves for their losses. The work passes through the journey of their grief and fight to free themselves using fairytales and fantastical stories.

This was one of the first books I have read in a verse format, and while it was a little hard to get used to, once I did I loved it. The way the characters are written pulls us further into the journey without letting go. Also, as someone who has dealt with lose of friends, family, and more it was a journey that cause me to reflect on my own losses.

I think and hope that this story can help readers understand and move forward from their grief, especially the young readers that this book is targeted for. It is an absolute recommend from me.

This book is filled with a plethora of emotions. I adore the novel in prose approach to this book that conveys the myriad of emotions that come with experiencing or living with clinical depression. We Are All So Good at Smiling does a wonderful job of describing the experience that I found so many relatable moments in the story as someone who has/have depressive episodes. The interweaving of fairytales from around the world to elaborate on those layers of emotions was a fabulous touch that was appreciated as fairy tales, folk lore, myths, & legends were my escape as well. This book just has a personal touch for me and it moved me deeply. I will say that some of the story can be a bit confusing, but that could be user's error. I would not suggest reading it as fast as I did. Maybe slow down a truly absorb each section. The author narrating the book was a beautiful touch to the audiobook format that made her words seep in more deeply. 4.5/5 for me. Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the chance to enjoy this great book.

Thank you to Amber McBride, Macmillan Audio, Macmillan Young Listeners, and Netgalley for an advanced audio-reader copy of "We Are All So Good at Smiling" for an honest review.

I am always so incredibly stolen away by poetry itself, and thus I am dying (in all the BEST ways) as modern writers begin to produce so much in the way of stories in verse now. They've all stolen my heart and this one was no different. A little less complicated than novels for a higher age bracket, I found myself charmed by the in-depth feelings of Whimsy, and about the world of Fairy around her, treated much like a magical version of a normal world in a lot of easy parallels.

I do wish we'd gotten a bit more in-depth about background, and setting, and more characters than the main two we were with most. Yet at the same time I'm so incredibly glad something this well written topic-wise, about depression and mental health and grief, is coming out to children.