Sylvie is obsessed with her therapist. Not like fascinated but obsessed like she wants to spend 24-7 with her, thinks about her hundreds of times a day, stops herself from texting her nonstop. Wishes she could be her dog. And on and on.

This story is mostly about how Sylvie's obsession and therapy sessions. I can't decide if I liked it or not but there were a few sections that really spoke to me:

“Exactly. It’s hard when you see other people from the outside but you only know yourself from the inside. It’s so hard to compare.”

“Well, you are seeing the inside of a person when you’re reading … you get to see their thoughts, not just the outside of them. And maybe you find that easier to relate to.” “Right,” Sylvie says. “It reminds me of your idea of videoing yourself so you can see yourself as a person,” the therapist says, “but the other way round.” “I’m seeing other people the way I see myself, from the inside,” Sylvie says. “It’s probably why a lot of people read—for human connection.”

“It can feel easier to give your life over to someone else and have them make your decisions for you. But I don’t think that will work for you in the long run. At some point you will want to make the decisions yourself, for your life to seem real and true to you.”

“Maybe a novel seems appealing because a novel has already been written,” the therapist says. “All the decisions have been made. You get to just see things unfold. But in life, you have to face the unknown and make decisions. It can be hard, but that’s what life is like for everybody. It’s all the unknown. Nobody knows what is going to happen.”

I loved these little gems.

with gratitude to netgalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review

A story about Sylvie and her obsession with her therapist but mostly a story about rebuilding and identity. It was very interesting to step inside Sylvie’s world and associate with a character and a thought process that was in some ways very foreign to me and in some ways I think entirely relatable to most of us. I did love experiencing her therapy sessions live and to consider the role of the therapist, especially in true acceptance vs correcting delusions?

Overall this book fell a little flat for me - 3.6.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

Happiness Forever by Adelaide Faith is a super inspiring read that really makes you think about what true happiness means. Faith mixes personal stories with advice that feels both real and relatable, making it easy to connect with. The book’s vibe is all about finding joy in the little things, and it’s a refreshing reminder to appreciate what we have. While some parts felt a little cliché, the positive energy and practical tips kept me hooked. If you're looking for a feel-good book that makes you want to live your best life, *Happiness Forever* is definitely worth checking out!

Not sure what I expected from this one, but that definitely was not it.

I do love an unhinged queer obsession book, but I'm not sure this quite fits into the genre as much as the other books in the same vein that I've read. I believe the idea of the exploration of a damaged woman's obsession with her therapist was an interesting concept (Big Swiss did this well for me), but this book just felt repetitive and flat.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

A shy girl with obsessive tendencies trying to seek help for these tendencies, ends up fixated on her therapist. Sylvie on paper is fairly well adjusted, she has an apartment she maintains, a job she does well at (even if she is a bit emotionally absent while there) and she has a special needs dog she takes great care of. Her current obsession happens to be her therapist but she has a history of projecting onto her relationships. I was a bit bored reading this at times; personally I found the excerpts from her job at the veterinary office to be the most interesting parts of the book.

A woman is obsessed with her therapist and we follow her as she manages this obsession. With the therapist, she works through how obsession and other intrusive thoughts impact her life and relationships.

I was really excited to read this book. Unfortunately, I found it quite boring. I thought I would enjoy being inside the mind of someone who is obsessed with their therapist, but I really didn’t. I found myself getting so annoyed with the main character. I was waiting for something to happen but it never did.

Strange book. Was kind of a slog to finish but I didn’t totally dislike it. There were some moment of intrigue when the therapist would introduce new information we hadn’t yet hear about the protagonist, which kind of changed my expectations about the protagonist…. But also I didn’t fully Get the introduction of her friend? Idk. Just odd.

I’m patting myself on the back for finishing this one. I think we are supposed to find wit and intellectual delight in this monotonous exploration of a damaged woman’s relationship/obsession with her therapist. But for me it was repetitive, charm free and solipsistic to the point of mania. I wasn’t intrigued by Sylvie, nor her brain damaged dog. I wasn’t magnetized by the therapist who maintains boundaries but also seems banal. The quirkiness didn’t engage. The friendships, which also morphed into exchanges about Sylvia’s therapy, only intensified the one-note mood. Clearly, I’m missing something. Or else the emperor has no clothes.

Well, don't know what I expected but this wasn't it. it left me frustrated, confused, and dissatisfied. I didn't like the protagonist, and the therapy sessions felt repetitive, hollow. Thank you netgalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Sylvie feels truly alive only during therapy—she’s in love with her therapist. Every session is electric, every moment apart an ache she measures down to the minute. Whether these feelings stem from “erotic transference,” as her therapist gently suggests, or from a desperate need for connection, Sylvie can’t quite untangle – but her dependence is high.
Outside therapy, Sylvie’s world is modest but steady: her job as a veterinary nurse, her little dog Curtains, and a new friendship with Chloe, someone she stumbled across on the beach.
When the therapist delivers some devastating news Sylvie’s tightly bound life starts to buckle, and she faces a choice: stay safely wrapped in fear, or lean with courage into the messy, thrilling possibilities.
I loved the humanity, wit, and perspicacity of this book. Sylvie has a troubled past, and the scene could be set for a dark tale of obsession (as in Emma Van Straaten’s brilliant The Immaculate Body), but Faith takes us elsewhere. Sylvie understands her feelings have a fantastical element, and that the fantasy brings a magic to her life which she feels it otherwise lacks. In recognising the folly of her situation Sylvie finds the humour and absurdity in it, appreciating how it must look from the outside. With the therapist’s help she can relate it to previous patterns in her life and start to pick at the locks which impede her.
Sylvie is such a winning character, braver, more resilient, and more capable than she thinks, and we can see how much she has to give, and how much she wants to give it. Faith’s writing has a wonderfully buoyant quality, communicating Sylvie’s sense of otherness and dislocation with crisp, moving, and striking lucidity.
This is a hugely engaging and enjoyable book and will strike a note with anyone who feels they never got life’s rulebook and have been blundering around with ill-informed but benevolent intentions ever since.

I was a bit disappointed by this one. It positions itself as a story of an unhinged queer obsession but in reality it’s just an account of relatively straightforward therapy sessions.

The main character Sylvie is obsessed with her therapist. She lives alone with her brain damaged dog in a seaside town and works as a vet tech. She’s been in some very unhealthy and controlling relationships and is working to figure out who she is in her 30s.

I loved Big Swiss so I was hoping it would be similar to that, but it unfortunately didn’t really deliver on the obsession or weirdness, and it wasn’t really gay, despite being a story of same-sex obsession.

It reminded me more so of Emily Austin’s writing in terms of being a very interior story of a deeply neurotic individual.

I think what really bugged me beyond the fact that nothing really happened is that all of Sylvie’s relationships seem to exist to talk about her therapist. So she’s in therapy, thinking about therapy, and then she meets her friends and only talks about therapy. It gets really repetitive, and we don’t get to actually know anything about her friends because the relationship is completely one sided.

The writing itself was fine, and I’m sure some people will really resonate with it, but it just wasn’t for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus, and Giroux for this advance reader copy, in exchange for an honest review. I was not sure what to expect when I started this book but, it was so much better than I could have hoped. This is a book that, at surface level, is about a woman who is obsessed with her therapist. However, as we come to uncover as we experience in these therapy sessions and in the rest of Sylvie’s life, is about so much more.

To be clear, Sylvie is obsessed with her therapist but, there is a lot underneath that and I found the exploration of these emotions and experience so intriguing. The therapy sessions with the unnamed therapist were wonderfully written; some of what Sylvie said was so unhinged and truly pushing boundaries but, the therapist never let it throw her off and instead, focused on what this could help Sylvie learn about herself. Through this, the message that I took away was that despite how much darkness or self doubt we might feel, it does not mean we are a bad person (at least, probably in most cases) and we all deserve to experience happiness.

This book was definitely more character driven than plot driven and we spend a lot of time with Sylvie, in an introspective sense. I don’t always enjoy this type of book but, this one really worked for me. There were a lot of heavy topics covered in the book, like abusive relationships and self destructive thoughts, but, despite this, the author did a good job at leaving the reader feeling hopeful; the book never felt overly morose and the experiences covered just felt true to life. There were a few times throughout the book where I feel like I didn’t “get” what the author was saying but, hopefully that will be a good excuse for me to go back to this in the future. Overall, I very much enjoyed this book and thought that it was an excellent debut. I would definitely recommend this book to literary fiction fans and readers who appreciate/enjoy books about mental health and self-discovery/growth.

A warmly off-kilter novel about Sylvie, a vet tech who develops a romantic obsession with her elegant therapist. The protagonist is dealing with the fallout of a former relationship, which was controlling and abusive, and is reassessing what she wants her life to be and who she wants to be in it. I thought it was lovely how the protagonist can so easily access happiness and hope, and how attentive and honest she is about their different registers.

Definitely in the vein of Elif Batuman and Sheila Heti, but a unique and particular perspective that includes meditations on Pierrot the clown, putting dogs down, and making friends as an adult.

Thanks to Netgalley and FSG for the ebook. Sylvie is obsessed with her therapist. The therapist tries to show her that she just has a case of transference as Sylvie still mourns one perfect boyfriend who died young and is still reeling from the last boyfriend who was so controlling that he completely broke her spirit. And now she just wants to sit in an office with a woman who will listen to whatever she has to say. As you run through the pages, it all seems to make sense, but, as you pull back, you realize this is rather disturbing. A funny and touching debut novel.

HAPPINESS FOREVER is a wild, hilarious novel. I was gripped by the voice. Adelaide Faith is the real deal. The novel tracks the protagonists---who works at a vet hospital---obsession with her therapist. And then there's Chloe, who arrives one day, a new friend. I won't say much more, but this is a gem of a novel.

Thanks to the publisher for the e-galley!