The novel had an interesting premise but it was not followed through on the narrative. Elegantly written, the tone was dark and I found it a difficult tead.

This is a really hard book to review, partly because the events that form the main plot are never really explained or at the forefront, leaving us with four characters who are all a little unlikeable in their own way (which makes them very real) almost drifting through the plot. But having said that it was very readable - beautifully written - in a melancholic, slow way.
It's a New York wedding of a thirtyish, professional, reasonably affluent couple. The guests behave as guests do: a woman makes a move on a man, a man makes a move on a waiter, a couple try and keep the illusion of their happiness alive, when a fellow guest sits down and refuses to move. She appears to be in a catatonic state, only when people try and move her she explodes into extreme violence and her heart rate is racing. There is no rousing her. She's hospitalised but dies within two weeks. Strange and upsetting for those that witness it but a one off. Only a few days later someone sits down at a music festival, and more and more. Soon sitting down has spread across the world, more prevelent in the west and amongst 20-50 year olds but affecting and killing millions. Is it it a disease or is it a choice?
The book follows four people from the wedding, Emory and Yun who hook up at the wedding, Yun's best friend Andrew whose own marriage is crumbling and Fin, a young English ballet dancer looking for a way out of his relationship and finding a convenient waiter to help him, as they navigate their way through an unsettling world. one which they witnessed the birth of, knowing that at any time they or their loved onces could be next.
Not so much a dystopia as an examination of the human spirit, this is an elegant, elegiac read. An interesting concept.

I couldn’t get into this story, I kept expecting it to go somewhere but it never did, just seemed to fizzle out. The storyline regarding the “illness” seemed unbelievable and then miraculously cured itself. Not a book I enjoyed or found gripping.

A hard book to categorise and, to some extent, also a hard book to read. We’re introduced to four people attending a wedding in New York: Yun a musician and DJ, Andrew an associate professor, Emory an aspiring news reporter and Fin – the youngest at just twenty years old – a ballet student. At some point during the celebrations a girl making her way to the bar suddenly sits on the floor. She doesn’t get up, she’s uncommunicative and all efforts to lift her are met with a snarling, snapping response. In the following weeks a number of similar cases come to light. Nobody is sure if this, seemingly irreversible, behaviour is caused by some kind of virus or disease, or whether it’s something else.

The surprise here is that with this tale we don’t take the path well trodden when is comes to such beginnings. Instead, the broader events sit in the background whilst in the foreground we’re invited ever deeper into the lives of the people we’ve met and a small number of fringe characters. New relationships blossom whilst existing links are sometimes threatened, career opportunities are opened for some but revenue streams are closed down for others; in short, life goes on. The element I wasn’t expecting, given the focus here is predominantly focused on the Millennial generation, is the pervading sense of disenchantment that seems to haunt this demographic. It’s as if many have concluded that there aren’t now and there won’t in future be any real opportunities for them, that this isn’t a world worth living in any more. Consequently, a general mood of disengagement with the people that surround them and even from life itself seems almost to be the norm.

The cause of this malaise isn’t explicitly explained, but there are hints that the lack of positive action taken by previous generations regarding environmental issues added to the fact that the cost of essentials such as health care and housing have spiralled to unmanageable heights are contributory factors. Could it be that some people are actually giving up on life either as a result of being driven to severe depression or even as an act of rebellion? In truth, I found it all rather hard to decipher. And yet I was increasingly becoming fascinated by and invested in the lives of the key players, particularly with regard to their relationships with those closest to them. This I could understand and I wanted them to succeed, I wanted them to find happiness.

The unsettlingly dark mood of this book caused me to struggle through the early chapters, but the quality of the writing, the deft character development and also the way in which the story slowly evolved gradually grew on me and finally trapped me. By the end I was burning the candle at both ends desperate to see how it all played out. This writer is very adept at stringing interesting sentences together and creating scenarios and structures that challenge and tease. Hannah’s last novel The Last was one of my top reads of 2019 and though this one lacks the instant punch of that book I did grow to appreciate it, even if I’m still trying to unravel elements of its message.

I thought the premise of this book sounded really interesting but throughout, just when you thought the book was about to get going, it sort of sputtered to a stop. It's a shame as it was my curiosity about the pandemic that kept me hooked but left my feeling very unfulfilled.

Are You Happy Now has four main characters - Emory, Yun, Andrew and Fin. They’re all in attendance at a friends wedding, when one of the guests sits down, and becomes unresponsive. If you try and get them to respond, or pull them up, they growl, and scratch, and scream. Thus begins a new pandemic.

Cases rise, people die, but it all feels like a background noise to the personal lives of our main characters, and the ins and outs of their relationships.

This is a book clearly born out of the covid pandemic - how an illness can sweep the world/country, but day to day life eventually continues on (though it never seems to really stop in this book). It also reflects on the hardships the youth of today face, and how hard it is to remain hopeful in the face of that.

I’m really not quite sure where I stand on this book. It took me a while to read it, but I always felt interested in where the story was going, even if it wasn’t fully meeting the expectations I had going in to it. I did find the writing well done though, and the characters did feel fleshed out and real, even if I didn’t particularly like any of them very much.

I was very tempted to up the book to four stars for the final chapter alone, but…in all honesty the book is a consistent three star. Not great, but certainly worth a read, in my view.

Thank you to Penguin General U.K. and Netgalley for the early copy to review.

Four characters that are just not connecting with each other or with the reader. The pandemic story starts off in an interesting way, but then nothing happens. We never find out what it was, it never connects with the characters and so the most interesting part of the book serves no purpose. Such a shame because the idea was good

Sorry but this novel I couldn’t finish. From the blurb I thought it would be right up my street but in reality I just didn’t care enough about the characters and the ‘epidemic’ seemed a bit too sci-fi for my liking.

A typical wedding, singing, dancing, flirting, too much to drink and falling out, we have all been to one of those. But this wedding had something different, a young woman sat in the middle of the dance floor, totally still and completely catatonic. The wedding introduces us to all the main players and starts the book off with a bang. As news arrives of similar situations, predominantly a mass “sit down” at a music festival, people start to think there is an unleashed virus, an epidemic, a plague of sorts, affecting the public. It appears to indiscriminately select its victims, with no warning, and there is no cure. The majority of victims die within a week or two, with only a few ever recovering. Despite their best attempts, scientists and doctors are unable to find a cause or a remedy.

The blurb for this book was so good, I really looked forward to reading. The first half of the plot was good, with the illness raging uncontrollably throughout USA and Europe, and was very interesting. Sadly the story then became more character focused, which would have been fine, but they were pretty awful, with only Andrew having any redeeming features at all. I really couldn’t get to grips with the second half of the book, found it a real struggle to read and lost interest. Far too long and drawn out.

I did finish the book, but felt there were more questions than answers and pretty inconclusive. Too many loose ends, a reason/cause of the pandemic was needed. A book that failed to deliver on its promise.

2.5*

Thank you NetGalley.

Yun has everything he ever wanted, but somehow it's never enough.
Emory is finally making her mark, but feels the shame more than the success.
Andrew is trying to be honest, but has lied to himself his whole life.
Fin can't resist falling in love, but can't help wrecking it all either.

And then the world begins to end. The four of them watch as one of the wedding guests sits down and refuses to get back up. Soon it's happening across the world. Is it a choice or an illness?

Because how can anyone be happy in a world where the only choice is to feel everything - or nothing at all?

If I have a c criticism it’s that I found the ending far less satisfying than the beginning and I struggled to identify with the character of Yun or understand why the other characters cared about him. I found him mopey rather than magnetic (which is how the other characters seem to see him), but that’s possibly personal preference.

I spent a lot of the book willing it to move faster, or for something to happen, and waiting for an actual explanation for what was happening. Unlike our real pandemic, this never comes. The ending fell flat in offering no conclusions to the things that I actually started reading it for. I can see what the author was going for but it missed the mark a bit there for me

Many thanks to NetGalley and Penguin General UK fir an advance copy in return for a fair and honest review

This book is due to be released on 2 February 2023

The premise of this story fascinated me. At a wedding in New York, without warning, a young person sits down and does not get up again and this begins happening all over the world. The question of whether this is a personal choice or whether it is enforced runs throughout the novel.

For me, this book didn’t quite tie up all the loose ends. The pandemic became a minor story and I wanted a more satisfying conclusion.

Where this author excels, however, is in bringing her main characters to life. Andrew’s story fascinated me and how it intertwined with Yun’s made for a compelling read.

This was a great concept, especially post-pandemic, and it was really strong up until three quarters of the way through when I felt it lost its way and became a bit of a drag. Some of the characters didn’t feel very well developed either so I ended up getting a bit confused at points.

The book was as good as the cover so take from that what you will..

Many thanks to Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Are you happy now drew me in with that beautiful cover, I mean can we talk about it..? I just love it that. Reviews of Hanna's newest novel described a book similar to that of Sally Rooney's work mixed in with a bizarre end of the world type drama. A virus appears to be infecting more and more people every day.. to say I was keen to read this was an understatement.

I absolutely loved this book which focuses on human relationships, romantic relationships that begin at a time of uncertainty, change and fear. The writing in are you happy now is beautiful, it was such an immersive experience getting caught up in the intertwining relationships between Emory, Yun, Andrew and Fin.

Questions arose such as were the characters involved with each other due to the fear of the virus around them causing people to literally sit down and become completely unresponsive before eventually dying after 1-2 weeks or did they have genuine connections that would have blossomed regardless of the end of the world vibes.

Yun and Andrew are pretty much are main main characters, and over the two of them I favored Yun because there was so much not to like about him, he was so human, he didn't know what he needed and who from. He struggled with self doubt, second guessing the past, questioning everything about his life, it was really relatable.

It was such a strange blend of genres which I have never read anything quite like before, thriller, romance, lit fic, emotional and heart warming.. I think this will be a bit hit in 2023. It was beautiful book about the communication between humans with a back drop of a virus related to mental health in the modern world.

I devoured this book! I thought the premise was really intriguing and quite like that the mystery behind it is not quite resolved in the end. Loved the various character designs and development (except for Yun, which unfortunately I grew to dislike more and more!). Will keep an eye out for Jameson's other novels!

I really wanted to like this book, but it was such a disappointment!

The concept is great - a pandemic taking over where people sit down and basically never get back up. One of the first known cases happens at a wedding that our central characters are attending. As the illness spreads, I was hoping that one of the characters, who is a journalist, would stop at nothing to find out what was causing it. However, we never find out, and the book descends into a Sally Rooney-esque study of relationships, but without any of them having a single redeemable quality or a reason to keep the reader on side. All the characters seemed really unlikeable.

Unfortunately, I lost interest about halfway through. I kept going in the hope that it would get better and something would be uncovered, but it just got worse. Such a shame as it had real promise.

I wanted to like this much more than I did.
The central premise of a mysterious pandemic lured me in, but then became something completely different than I expected, and maybe that put me in a different frame of mind to be able to fully embrace the novel.

Certainly, it’s well written. But it’s ultimately just too depressing.! I found myself losing patience with the characters and their complete. Inability to just be happy with literally anything. Possibly this is exactly what Jameson was trying to explore, but just because something is well-observed doesn’t make it entertaining, at least not for me

I didn't get into this one in the same way I had Jameson's previous book. It may simply be that I've read too many books about end of the world pandemics at this point!

Thank you NetGalley for yhe opportunity to read this book.

A fantastic story which starts at a wedding but has so much more than that. There is love, romance, unrequited love and then at the heart of it all there is a dystopian pandemic.

There was something about this book that kept me reading despite having a sizeable migraine!

This book was strange, and difficult, in the best way. Set in a post-pandemic dystopian world, where a new world-ending force waves its way through the population, the book follows 4 main characters and their lives as they unfold during this new "pandemic". It was very cleverly written, realistic from the point of view that the story was still made up of the trajectories of the characters' lives, their friendships, worklives, activities and relationships, and more so as the wave of deaths dropped, assimilated to the way that the covid pandemic was perceived at least from my perspective. From a psychological perspective, the background star of this book, the new pandemic, is interesting to unpack though made a little frustrating by the fact that Jameson had not conclusively revealed the nature or cause of this wave. I always feel a little torn about endings and answers that are lead but not defined by the author, and left to the reader to interpret in their own way. I loved it but hated it at the same time. It left me feeling itchy in an unfinished sort of way, but that was probably very cleverly the entire point of the ending, as it packs the punch of the underlying feeling of so many characters throughout the narrative. Very literarily satisfying in that way.

Come in... sit down... take the weight off your feet...

We join this story as a strange new pandemic starts to hit people. People living their ordinary lives suddenly sit down and never get up again. This causes shock waves across communities - but this book in many ways is about the impact on a small group of people and how they see themselves and others.

This is a story about relationships and how we live our lives. Do we continue living the lives we might have just fallen into or do we make the harder choice? Do we choose to sit down - or can we finally stand up? It's time to find out.