Review: More Happy Than Not

Title: More Happy Than Not
Author: Adam Silvera

Series: None
Length: 293 Pages 
Published by: Soho Teen
Publication Date: February 7, 2012 
Diversity: LGBT+ protagonist, LGBT+ romantic interest, main characters are POC, heavy exploration of socioeconomic class divisions, deals heavily with mental illness, intersectional #ownvoices
Rating: ★★★✩✩

(This information is regarding the print version. I read this as an ebook through Axis 360, which is an eBook lending application that I highly recommend using if your library participates in it!)

       I'm going to preface this by saying that I've read some pretty fucked up books in my 17 years, and this one takes the cake. More Happy Than Not is a heavy book from multiple angles. It's about an impoverished teenager named Aaron Soto who inhabits a housing project in the Bronx, where his family has lived for years. He rents a tiny apartment with his mom and brother where they all try their best to get by, surrounded by the community they have been a part of for as long as Aaron can remember. He's been going through some pretty rough stuff after his father's suicide and his own attempt on his life, but he's finally moving forward. After Aaron makes a connection outside his project, it creates tension between him and his friends, and as their friendship develops, tension between Aaron and his endlessly supportive girlfriend. Eventually, his feelings about Thomas get so mixed up that he decides his only hope for a normal life is an experimental memory-alteration procedure. 

     There's not much further I can go without spoiling some things, but some pretty fucked up stuff happens later on. This book deals with quite a few serious subjects, including mental illness, grief, poverty, violence, and hate crimes. The commentary gets pretty sophisticated at some points, especially considering that Aaron's internal monologue is often focused on what he can and cannot afford- the socioeconomic commentary is almost nonstop.

      

     However, the writing style of More Happy Than Not was something I really disliked. There was absolutely no fluff, and I don't really remember it being anything but literal. Much of the book didn't feel real, and I didn't ever feel truly present in the setting. The writing consisted mainly of dialogue, Aaron's internal monologue, and sex mentions. Occasionally Aaron would get a little poetic over his love for others, but that was the maximum amount of fluff. I know I complain when novels have too much sensory detail, but this one just didn't have enough for me. It felt a little too simplistic, although that worked in its favor by making the novel easily understood. If you prefer a minimal-frills writing style, you'll probably love this aspect.

     Additionally, some of the plot seemed a little simplistic and a tad bit campy. Even with the plot twists, it went in a pretty simple sequence of events. It was pretty fixated on one certain event from the past, and everything stemmed from That Traumatic Event even when it didn't quite make sense to me that 2 + 2 = eternal manpain. Oh, and there's a lot of manpain. It was pretty well-justified trauma, but still quite a bit of mainpain.

     One thing that worked both for and against this novel was the realism of the teenage boys. Most of the major characters are stereotypical teenage boys and depicted as such. Much of the novel was centered around teenage boys, and the realism was impeccable, from what I know of stereotypical horny teenagers. That said, they talk about sex ALL THE TIME. I got SO TIRED of hearing the guys talk about banging throughout the entire first third of the book. After a while, I became kind of numb to all of the casual mentions of DICK. There's no actual smut, but if sex mentions make you uncomfortable this may not be the book for you.

    Overall, this was an Important Book. Just like The Miseducation of Cameron Post, I may not have liked More Happy Than Not, but am glad that it exists, even if it felt kind of campy to me. Don't let my issues with this book discourage you from reading it if it sounds like your cup of tea. I would recommend it if you're looking for a book with an LGBT+ protagonist that's uncommonly dark with extremely sophisticated commentary and a minimalist writing style. Additionally, this is an intersectional #ownvoices book- here's a link to Adam Silvera's page on Goodreads! More Happy Than Not is not a book for everyone, and it's not one of the most fluffy or happy books I've ever read, but feel free to give it a shot and tell me what you think!