A super interesting book centered around the idea of a pandemic where the people who get sick and recover become deeply content and start shedding/donating etc their worldly possessions. There's a lot of interesting and thought-provoking ideas here around what it means to be happy, can society survive if everyone is compassionate and giving? What if some are and some aren't? What's moral and can you sacrifice some to save many? and so much more. Shusterman is an exquisite author and this book is no exception.

with gratitude to netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Another really interesting dystopian book from Shusterman—the exploration of what would happen if we were able to magically disappear our worries and problems was thought-provoking and page-turning.

"All Better Now" by Neal Shusterman is a thought-provoking YA story set in a post-COVID world grappling with a new pandemic. This virus leaves the few that survive free from stress and negativity. This unexpected consequence challenges what our world should be like and raises ethical questions about happiness. Shusterman has created, once again, a dystopia that leaves the reader with questions about while being entertained. There are moments of humor surrounding the plot

4.5 stars rounded up

While this isn't my go-to genre, I LOVED this one. Dystopian vibes with a twist of a new pandemic that makes people happy. It had SO many twists that just kept reeling me in. I completely devoured this 500+ page book in two quick sittings because of that. It was intriguing to see things from both sides of the coin. While this is a fiction novel, it had so very interesting topics that are eye opening about us a human race, as us as individuals, societal needs versus mother Earth's needs plus our morals and values. I'll take away from this, to try to see the "blue" in every day and stop taking so much granted, but also always choosing kindness and happiness along the way. This is action-packed, tons of crazy twists from start to finish. You'll be on the edge of your seat several times. You'll laugh. You'll get teary-eyed. You'll open your eyes to some things happening in this world. All in all, it's a fantasic read. Highly recommend!!

I received this book by NetGalley and Simon & Schuster to read/review. All of the statements above are my true opinions after fully reading this book

While the premise was nice, the writing was... not what I expected. I wanted more from the characters because I felt that what was on the front cover and the front flap was not what we were given.

I wanted to love this book. I really did. But I think the global pandemic plus corrupt government, plus the social divide of "us vs them" was a little too close to real life for me to really enjoy this book. However, I do think it is a great book for teens to open conversation about the aforementioned issues and current events.

The premise of this book is an interesting one - a virus that makes you feel content and happy. We see how different people react to it and the consequences of it, similar to how we watched society react to COVID. With some editing, I believe the book could have been better. I don’t mind long books, but this one did drag, especially around the middle. I also had a hard time connecting with some of the characters; there were so many and they didn’t have much depth. All in all, a good story, but not my favorite.

*Followers may like this so I did include a book spotlight on my page. Link included.

Thanks for the opportunity to read!

I have always adored Neal Shusterman’s novels. They’re some of the only storylines that have stuck with me past my adolescence.

I’m not sure if it’s because I am an almost-30 adult now, but I am struggling to finish this book. It is a novel concept — a pandemic that has an upside — and I am so intrigued to finish it, but I am getting distracted by the shifting storylines. You meet multiple characters throughout the novel, and ultimately all of their stories overlap. However, it can take a couple of chapters to see the connection between certain new personalities, and quite a few of them are unsavory. Then, there are also conflicting agendas. At least 4 characters are plotting against each other’s interests.

So although I love this book, I keep taking breaks to cleanse my palette before hoping back in. Because of that, I am running out of time to complete it before the ARC deadline. I also can’t renew the novel, so I am sharing this review now for NetGalley with my initial thoughts. My final Goodreads review will come later, after I am able to read the entire book.

Shusterman has done another terrifying book. This one is a slow but steady slide into the darkness that is human beings. Even human beings who have been infected by a virus that makes them incapable of not being happy and helpful. I don't think this is the my favorite of his, but it certainly stands to be a good option if you're looking for something to make you think and be a little scared about the state of the world.

3.5. The concept of this book is fascinating. We’re following stories about 4 main characters. It took me awhile to get into their stories i must admit. I did enjoy the breaks in between the stories to show us how other people around the world were coping with Crown Royale. I actually enjoyed those stories more. I almost gave it a 4 Star or higher but it was hard getting and following along with all of the POV’s. Also the main characters were so blah to me. I can’t put my finger on it but they were hard to connect with.

I loved how the author showed how different people reacted to this virus. Very reminiscent of 2020 COVID. Which was mentioned a lot and did give me a bit of ptsd.

I received a free eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review (I also ended up with a physical ARC from our book vendor!). Neal Shusterman is hit or miss for me, but I really loved the Scythe and Unwind series, and this felt like it was in a similar vein. I confess to stopping and starting a lot - I picked it up when we got the physical ARC, but reading on the desk is a challenge (it’s hard to concentrate when you’re getting up every 5 minutes to help kids find the Pokemon books). I’ve been in kind of a rut lately, so although this didn’t super hold my interest, I kept coming back to it in the absence of anything else exciting.

Anyway! We’re at least a few years post-Covid, and there’s a new pandemic. But this one has an unusual side effect - if you recover from Crown Royale, you’re…happy. Perfectly content, no worries in the world, all of the negative feelings are totally gone (and it also seems like the people who die from it experience happiness in their final moments). Sounds great, right? But of course everyone is freaking out about it, mainly because people who are perfectly content with their lives tend not to spend much money. Our three protagonists are Mariel, a transient teen who (mostly) lives in a car with her mother, Ron (with pretentious accent over the O), son of one of the world’s richest men, and Morgan, who was just hired to take over the fortunes of Dame Havilland, one of the OTHER richest people in the world. Dame Havilland is worried that if she gets Crown Royale, she’ll give away all of her money (it’s what the other rich folks seem to be doing), and she worked too hard for that. Morgan is pretty shrewd, so she has no moral qualms about agreeing to this setup and then immediately kicking the woman out of her own house. Mariel and Ron cross paths when Mariel and her mother spend the night in Ron’s Air B&B (it’s a whole thing - his dad rents out this crazy penthouse apartment for super cheap).

Ron eventually gets Crown Royale and he and Mariel end up taking a road trip together. He’s perfectly content, she’s…immune. No matter how much time they spend together in close quarters, Mariel cannot get sick. Morgan, meanwhile, is terrified of getting sick, so she uses some of that Hallivand fortune to open up a lab to try to devise a cure.

One of the problems I’ve always had with Shusterman’s work is that he is amazing at world building, but not so great at character development. It’s the issue with the Scythe series - the first couple of books were amazing, but eventually the world-building part kind of peters out and you have to focus on the characters, and you realize they’re all kind of flat and boring. It’s sort of the same thing here. I found Morgan fascinating - she’s a total opportunist who doesn’t seem to have any empathy. I wanted to like Mariel, but she’s as boring as Citra from Scythe. And Ron *could* have been interesting, but once he gets Crown Royale, he’s also really boring - all he wants to do is spread the disease so everyone can be as happy as he is. Perfect contentment is an extremely dull basis for a story, and when fully a third of the story is following that person…snore.

Neal Shusterman cn write a book that so unique and different than any other such as Scythe. The premise of this one is like having seasonal depression then being happy for forever. It's executed really great in some parts, but this book was longer than I would have liked and with spoiling anything would have liked some parts to not be in and some of the characters didn't make sense to me. I stayed for the plot, and I felt like he could create more in this world/setting going forward. Thank you, Neal, the publisher, and Netgalley!

Very engaging and interesting read. Very well developed and ambitious. Will be recommending to library collection and patrons.

A new virus called Crown Royal is running rampant throughout the world. This is spinning off the world just getting back to normal after the pandemic revolving around COVID. With a 96% survival rate, this virus doesn’t sound so bad except that it totally changes the way the survivors think about everything. The “recoverees” become selfless and completely content.
Two teens, Mariel and Rón, from very different backgrounds become intertwined amongst this new world. She has not contracted the disease but he is a survivor. They are falling in love and trying to navigate life with the world becoming divided.
This book is amazing! Extremely well written, descriptive character development and a “hang on the edge of your seat” plot!

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publishing Company for this Advanced Readers Copy of All Better Now by Neal Shusterman!

3.5/5
I liked all the different perspectives this book gives you.I liked seeing all the different sides and the reasons why they were doing what they were doing.

Overall though, I don’t know how I feel about this book. I’m conflicted. I think part of me was very entertained and part of me is left wondering what the purpose of it was. I did enjoy it the whole time I was reading it. The ending was just a little lackluster. There was something missing for me. I think maybe due to some of the characters not feeling half of their emotions, I never felt any true connection to them.

I did genuinely have a good time while reading this though. I love a book that has me considering who is in the right or wrong. I would recommend this to young readers who enjoy dystopian books or someone new to dystopian. It’s a very entertaining read and I’d be open to reading a sequel.

3.5 stars rounded up. Wouldn’t it be awesome, especially in this day and age, to just feel…happy? To feel completely content, at peace, and unbothered? To not be stressed or anxious or worried or depressed, ever again, for the rest of your life? In the world of Neal Shusterman’s All Better Now, a new virus called Crown Royale is sweeping through the population, and the long-term effects are exactly that: People who survive the virus experience complete and total inner peace when they recover; they are unburdened of every negative emotion they’ve ever had. But the people in power need the masses to remain discontented for countless reasons, and they aren’t going to let society become utopian without a fight.

I found All Better Now to be so thought-provoking, a book that raises so many interesting questions and offers no easy answers. Although it’s being marketed as YA, it’s not a book that deals with (or at least not only with) issues specific to teens. It’s rooted in issues that affect everyone, regardless of age, race, culture, or creed. Shusterman presents an idea that on the surface sounds without fault – living a purely pleasurable, altruistic, contented life – until you think about the potential global implications if it were to happen worldwide. It’s such a complex concept that Shusterman explores from all sides, through All Better Now’s three core characters: a survivor of Crown Royale; someone who is immune to the virus; and someone who will go to great lengths to quelch it before it spreads. It’s a sprawling story that spans the globe, ambitious in its scope, and incredibly well-executed.

For a book so focused on feelings, though, I found that All Better Now strangely lacked emotion. I didn’t really connect with the characters in any meaningful way, which made the book overall less impactful for me. Nevertheless, it’s certainly a fascinating, original novel that still as me pondering, weeks after I finished it, what my own path would be in a Crown Royale pandemic. Thank you to Simon & Schuster for the complimentary reading opportunity.

I was given the opportunity to read an arc of All Better Now by Neal Shusterman.
Imagine a virus that creates happiness and contentment. Would you want to catch it? Would you fight to destroy it? What a genius idea! On one hand, no more need for antidepressants, anti anxiety medications, etc. The world is kinder, more forgiving. However, as The fear of missing out disappears, so does overconsumption. Society would completely change, with the downfall of big pharma, and designer retail, Capitalism would collapse.
I'm trying to be honest with myself in deciding which world i would prefer to live in. I'll be thinking about this book for weeks. I do hope it becomes a trilogy. Thanks Neal.🙂

DNF at 34%. This is a case of "it's not you, it's me" in that I don't think this is a bad book at all and I can see other people really enjoying it. For me, I just couldn't connect with the characters so that left me uninterested in reading more. I love the premise and find the concept to be fascinating. I have also enjoyed other books by this author. I'm not opposed to finishing this sometime in the future and if I do I will update this review accordingly.
I would recommend that anyone interested in the premise give it a try and see what they think!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

I loved Shusterman’s Scythe series and was immediately interested in the concept of this book where “happiness” is a contagious disease. Unfortunately, this book just wasn’t for me. I love this author but this one felt out of touch from his regular style. I enjoyed the overall plot and themes that Shusterman sets up . It was written well and I found the “dystopian” aspect really interesting in how the role of capitalism and greed impacts public health. However, what I disliked was that were way too many POVs – it made this book exhausting to get through. I get that the extra POVs provided more context about how the rest of the world is being affected by the disease, but it kept moving away from the main plot. Because of this, I was annoyed at how difficult it was to connect with the main characters since they didn’t get enough page-time during the main storyline itself. The pacing was also very slow and jumped around often with the abrupt changes in POV. I felt that this book could have easily been 100 pages shorter. If you’re looking to get into this author’s works or just dystopian titles in general, I would recommend the Scythe series.

2.5/5