“People revealed themselves constantly, but unconsciously, and in the very smallest of ways.”

Wellness is an @Oprahsbookclub pick!

This is a loooong one guys, at more than 600 pages, but utterly engaging. It is like a peek into the bones of a marriage as it spans decades and changing times and social media. As it navigates past hurts and underlying weaknesses and the growing and changing of two people who vowed to be each others forever but who now see cracks starting to form.

Wellness is a commitment and almost like a slow burn character study but I enjoyed it immensely.

Thanks for the free #audiobook @PRHAudio #PRHAudioPartner and to Netgalley, Knopf Publishing, and the author for the ARC.

There's a love story here that anchors the narrative. Elizabeth and Jack meet when they are college students. It's the 90s, it's Chicago, they're going to dive bars and clubs and seeing bands - Hill captures the setting just perfectly with references from the Double Door and Lounge Ax to Urge Overkill and the Jesus Lizard. The rich detail brought that time and place to life and we fall in love with Elizabeth and Jack falling in love.

All of the book is told with that rich, exacting detail. A chapter when we've fast forwarded a few years and Elizabeth is trying to get her two year old toddler to eat his lunch, and then venture out to the grocery store is excruciating. It only spans a few hours but we feel the torture of their routine. A section where Jack goes through his employer's on-boarding process is excruciating in its accuracy. Talk about deep diving.

We learn a lot about placebo effect (her job) and art and photography (his job). We learn about their pasts, their families' pasts. There's a whole section on social media algorithms (Jack's father has gone the conspiracy rabbit hole). Lots of detailed, far reaching branches (we're over 600 pages here), but at the heart it's a love story. A sweet messy love story.

My thanks to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for the ARC.

I had previously read and loved Nathan Hill’s The Nix, so when I saw he had written a new book, I immediately asked for an advance reader’s copy. Hill is a talented writer with great insight into human nature. This book tells the story of Jack and Elizabeth, a couple who meet in college, get married, have a child, and find that they are drifting apart after twenty years. The storyline follows their relationship.

It starts in the 1990s in Chicago, and the setting is vividly described and easily visualized. We learn of Jack’s background in photographic art and Elizabeth’s work in psychology. It is character driven and, by the end, I felt like I knew these two. As the story progresses, we understand many of the reasons they were initially drawn together and the lingering impact of their childhood traumas.

The writing is top rate. The narrative is a mixture of social commentary and an easily relatable story about the ups and downs of married life. It touches on a variety of topics with humor and insight, including “new age” concepts, wellness, the placebo effect, parenting, and social media algorithms. I am impressed by the author’s ability to weave into the story a wide variety of topics. It is rather long but read it slowly and always looked forward to picking it up where I left off. I love Nathan Hill’s writing style and will read anything he writes.

I received a complimentary electronic copy of this novel from Netgalley, author Nathan Hill, and publisher Knopf. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me. I have read Wellness of my own volition, and this review reflects my honest opinion of this work.

Frankly, I came at this tale four different times before I muddled through it. It has a good, big beginning, but becomes so complex and nitty that I sat it aside and moved on more than once. Finally got to the end today, and it was - interesting. Occasionally it was funny. Usually, I'm the one saying don't cut even one word! They are all necessary ~! Not this time. I'm too old to waste 629 pages of story on a 300-page tale.

Smart layered on smart. There's so much to unearth, ponder and sit with in this novel--completely masterful! I loved it and I've been recommending it since well before I finished.

Nathan Hill’s new novel, Wellness, is a smart love story. There are no simple tropes, the obstacles the central couple, Jack, and Elizabeth, must overcome are largely of their own making, and mostly because they simply think too much. The couple is obsessed with the foundations of human behavior and teaching the nuances of it to the reader. While the relationship between Elizabeth and Jack is endearing and fascinating, their analysis, especially in the murky middle of the book, tends toward tedium. They dwell so intensely on the fields of their interest and research them so extensively…both the characters and the author…that the reader has to resist the temptation to treat the novel as a scholarly work and actually skip the long explanations and examples (footnoted!) and get to the parts where they remember that they CARE about Jack and Elizabeth, their heartbreaking childhoods and how they deal with the fallout as they try to raise their own son.

I urge you, if you get so far into the book that you want to put it aside, don’t. You will not be able to forget Jack and Elizabeth and Toby, and if you finish the book, you will find yourself wanting to have discussions with them, and everyone you meet, about the world you’ve left when you close the cover. The pay-off is worth it. Bravo, Nathan Hill.

This book was published September 19, 2023. Thanks to NetGalley and publisher Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage and Anchor for the review copy.

I absolutely adore this book and have already told everyone I know that they need to read it. The writing is amazing, but it’s the twisty timeline and multiple points of view that make this story unforgettable. The book follows the lives of Jack and Elizabeth through its ups and downs to create one of the most amazing romance adjacent stories. The two met under unusual circumstances in the Chicago art scene of the 1990’s. When they met their love felt limitless and all they wanted was to be close together. After twenty years of marriage, they both find themselves questioning the limit of their love and wanting more space. Theirs is a modern love story about all the “things” that get in the way, how the pursuit of happiness can lead the seeker to forget to be happy. This book says all of the things that you have probably thought throughout the years, but in such an informative and thoughtful way. Prior to reading this book I would never have guessed that a breakdown of Facebook’s various algorithms could be so tender and heartbreaking. I loved how the characters seemed to be living on the page and you were just the invisible observer. Everything felt so real, and I couldn’t help but be invested in the outcome of the story. This is a top 10 book of the decade and we’re only 3 years in.

QUICK TAKE: it's an instant classic. I couldn't put it down, and I loved every second of it. That's all.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an e-ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

So I was a little nervous starting this 624 page novel and was really hoping it wouldn't be a slog. Most of the books I've read recently have been around 250-400 pages, so this seemed epic. Once I got started though, I was hooked from the first chapter, and was fully invested in the lives of Jack and Elizabeth. In fact, after finishing the book, I honestly would've read even more chapters about their lives.

Hill's writing style here is very wordy--sentences are long and rambling, but that doesn't seem to slow down the readability. In fact, I finished this novel in less days than some other recent shorter ones. This is definitely a character-driven novel, and by the end, the reader will likely feel like they thoroughly know the main characters. Even the secondary characters are well fleshed out. There were a couple of secondary characters that felt a bit too on-the-nose and stereotypical, but I understood the point the author was going for with them.

I do feel that the author could've trimmed down the story a little--perhaps not so much detailed and extended family history was needed? I still enjoyed reading it all, but in order to perhaps have a tighter and shorter novel than 624 pages, there's definitely room to cut without losing any real storyline. My only other critique is that there were a few times where I noticed the author reiterating ideas to the reader that were easy enough to infer from the previous interactions/dialogue--it was almost as if he didn't think the reader would come to those conclusions on their own and needed extra reminders.

This novel was just a great combination of qualities and themes that I enjoy reading about--modern love, wellness culture, family drama, soul-searching characters. I had not read Nathan Hill's earlier work, but I am excited to, and will be looking forward to future novels from him. I really enjoyed this novel and highly recommend!

At the center of this book is the story of a marriage. Jack and Elizabeth meet, fall in love, and we follow the trajectory of their romance and marriage over the course of twenty years. Nathan Hill's writing makes you want to keep turning the pages and he delves into the complexities of a modern marriage, monogamy, and parenthood. Like a longterm marriage, this book at over 600 pages is a commitment, but it's one that I'm glad I made.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for this ARC.

- WELLNESS is a book that is so sprawling and layered that I am having a hard time collecting my thoughts about it.
- Hill is such a master of slowly unspooling a story, giving us each piece of a character's life at the exact moment it's needed, which somehow makes a slow, character-based novel feel like a page turner.
- It's possibly I simply connect too deeply to this book, given that I'm someone who thought she'd be an artist of some kind who is now married in the suburbs...but I think even if you don't identify with that particular part of the story, there will be something in Jack and Elizabeth's lives that rings true to you.
- The more I think about this book, the more sure I am that I can't condense it into an Instagram caption. Consider this an open invitation to come chat with me about it if you've read it!

Jack and Elizabeth meet as college students in Chicago in the 90s and fall madly in love. Twenty years later, they have moved to the suburbs and are struggling to make their marriage work.

I loved all of the scenes set in 90s Chicago - any book that has characters meet at the Empty Bottle is going to win at least a chunk of my heart. And I thought the commentary on long-term relationships would speak to me - and some of it did, but things went off the rails and not in a fun way - more like in a meandering, guy talking way too long in a college philosophy class way. If Hill had stuck with the snarky, hilarious bits and let the characters breathe a little, and left out the pages (and pages and PAGES) of existential Deep Thoughts, this would have been a perfect book. As it stands for me, I think it's a good book by a talented author, but I wish it had somehow been more and less at the same time (which makes no sense, I know).

Jack and Elizabeth fall in love as college students, are in sync with each other and so get married. Years later, they have both changed or evolved into slightly different persons from their youthful selves. They must work it out.

In between however, the author treats us to analyses of love, health, current beliefs and presumptions about how the real world and people really work. Most of the books deals with putting down our misguided beliefs about all manner of things.

Chief among the beliefs about our health, mental and otherwise, is the idea of how placebos work as well as or better than the real thing. We are given umpteen study results that show how placebos can change minds, and can heal what seemed a lost cause. Our minds and brains are complex things that determine how we think and believe.

Other real world ideas and beliefs are explained and shot down by innumerable examples of studies done and what they show. I became disheartened and didn't want to finish the book, it was so cluttered with these studies that disprove what we normally think or believe about all sorts of things.

The book was too intense with topics that had nothing to do with Jack and Elizabeth that I could see. These studies could have been put in a book separate from the story of a couple's progress in their marriage.

Re my rating, the value of the ideas is a four. The way it was presented makes it a three star read.

Nathan Hill gives off 600+ pages of a complicated, love at first sight relationship and I enjoyed it. Jack and Elizabeth fall in love in the 90s while trying to make a name for themselves in the underground Chicago art scene. 20 years later and the couple is struggling to recognize each other. They are trying to keep their relationship from deteriorating, so they do what any other couple would do, they each go on a self discovery journey.

I found this to be relatable as a married woman. I do think there comes a point in every relationship that we have where we have to take time to remember who we are. Sometimes we give up a lot for family, but forget that we are individuals. It’s definitely a thought-provoking piece and I will recommend it to my friends.

Excellent writing. It took me a bit to get into it, but once I did I loved it. Though it was 600+ pages, I didn't feel like it was too long.
I very much related to Elizabeth in relation to her work in psychology. My undergrad degree was in psychology, and my anxiety thought process is so much like hers. The chapter where she was trying to get her toddler to eat his lunch and how worried she was about him trying new foods completely resonated with me, even though I am not a parent. TI liked that the book spanned decades, and once I got used to it, I loved the nonlinear structure of the book. It was a great blend of satire and social commentary on wellness culture, marriage, and parenting, and I loved the 90's vibes at the beginning of the book and during the chapters on their college years. An excellent read and listen--the audio version was very well done!

"Every couple has a story they tell themselves about themselves, a story that hums beneath them as a kind of engine, motoring them through trouble and into the future."

Welcome to Scenes from a Marriage of a couple who may or may not be consciously uncoupling.

Nasty words have been exchanged . . . the kind of words you can't take back:

"You thought if you married a rich girl, it meant you weren't the country bumpkin you're so afraid you really are."

"Okay, and you thought if you married an artist, it meant you weren't the heartless rock you're so afraid you really are."

Hill is careful to present both sides equally, though you may end up preferring one partner over the other. From their awful childhoods - Elizabeth's viciously competitive father, and the heartbreaking image of young Jack playing D&D all by himself, to their problems raising their young son - we get to see it all unravel.

Hill's book is damned near perfect in both the writing and the observations of human behavior.

I adored this book. Full of heart and humor, Wellness tells the story of a modern couple navigating marriage, parenthood and everything in between. It is about living an honest and authentic life in the age of the internet. It sparks so much discussion about art, the placebo effect, algorithms, ethics, philosophy and more. You don’t want to miss this one!

I loved Hill’s meandering style of storytelling and the flow of consciousness sections. His writing is so beautiful and I am so excited to go back and read The Nix now! Wellness is definitely a highlight of the year!

In "Wellness" by Nathan Hill, readers are treated to a compelling exploration of the human condition, wrapped in a narrative that is both thought-provoking and deeply moving. Hill's masterful storytelling weaves a tapestry of characters and emotions, drawing readers into a world where the boundaries between reality and introspection blur. Through vivid prose and intricate character development, Hill delves into themes of identity, self-discovery, and the pursuit of inner peace. The novel's rich imagery and poignant moments resonate long after the last page, leaving readers with a newfound understanding of the complexities of wellness and the myriad paths one can take to achieve it. With its profound insights and captivating storytelling, "Wellness" stands as a testament to Hill's literary prowess, making it a compelling read for anyone in search of a transformative literary experience.

Thanks to Net Galley and Knopf for a copy of this sophomore effort of Nathan Hill. It is the current Oprah book club selection and comes in at a whopping 624 pages. It was a fast-paced read regardless of the size. I found it to be good literary fiction about young love, marriage, and married life 20 years later with two people that had been plagued by trauma in their formative years. The book had good character development and wonderful writing. I also appreciated the research that must have been done to cover such topics as psychology, placebo effects, 90's art scene, and polyamory.

Outstanding, I loved this one. The length was a bit daunting but it grabbed me straight away. The switching between now and back in the early years of the relationship worked so well. I loved how my opinion changed as different things were revealed.