3.5 stars
I had trouble getting into this book as I was reading it, but some of it has stayed with me since I read it a few months ago. The chapters about the road down the conspiracy rabbit hole were interesting and relevant to the current time.

A relatable, well told story about how we all change and grow, sometimes together, and sometimes apart.

A thoughtful contemporary novel. Wellness follows Jack and Elizabeth through several periods of their lives: jumping back and forth from their childhoods, the beginning of their relationship, and their current married life. It's an introspective look at marriage, how we change throughout our lives (and how we don't), how childhood shapes us, and also how we delude ourselves.

I was particularly interested in the psychological aspects of this novel. Elizabeth works in the industry, focusing on the placebo effect. That was fascinating to read about. She is also obsessed with psychological studies, particularly those focusing on childhood. Not surprising, when you consider her own troubled relationship with her parents. Unfortunately, Jack also has a strained relationship with his family, leading to some of the most depressing parts of the story. I was also intrigued by the sections on internet algorithms and online fearmongering. The author clearly did a lot of research, and it works out well in my opinion. It will definitely make you think, and possibly tear up. It did for me.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This is ultimately a love story of Jack and Elizabeth. They secretly watch each other across the way in their apartment buildings until they meet at a club. From then on they are destined for each other, soulmates. They are in college in Chicago, Elizabeth majoring in multiple things, Jack in art. They date for 5 years, and are married for 15. Elizabeth tinkers with Wellness and placebos, studying their effect. She is wondering if there is more to their life, to their family, to their love. She begins experimenting and looking for excitement elsewhere. They talk about a forever home, and sink their life savings into it, yet it is a building fraught with problems.
Jack is committed to Elizabeth. Both Jack and Elizabeth had varying traumas in their childhood which affects the way they live their adult lives.
I really enjoyed Jack, but struggled with Elizabeth. I also felt that the middle of the book dragged a bit, and could have been a bit shorter. I was satisfied with how I think their story ends.

This didn't land for me. I wanted it to - I loved The Nix, but this one I just couldn't get into. I'm leaving it on my nightstand in case I decide to power through the back half.

Well-written, interesting, but dense. And long. Some sections were interminably long…tempted me to DNF.

This was tough, but I finally opted to cut my losses and DNF’d Wellness at 30%. It started out great but quickly became overly verbose and I lost interest. I had to laugh at some parts I read such as the “onboarding” process at the university. (I’ve worked at universities and understood completely!) The final straw for me was a long chapter about a toddler meltdown, complete with reference citations. Who puts reference citations in a novel? And there’s even a bibliography at the end of the book. A good editor really needed to cut a lot of the non-essential content, which took readers out of the plot line. My 30% was the equivalent of a short book, given that Wellness is almost 700 pages long.

Giving up on this one makes me sad, but I had to do it. Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for the opportunity to read an advance readers copy of this book, although I was rather late to it. I bounced between the ARC and the published audiobook, courtesy of my public library. The narrator, Ari Fliakos, did a good job with the various voices for the portion that I listened to All opinions are my own.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC. This is a great read for anyone who was a teen or in their early 20s in the 1990s. This story centers around a couple, Jack and Elizabeth who meet in the 90s, while both are in college. Their story continues as they marry and go about life together, navigating the world together. I highly enjoyed this book. I think this book would make a great gift because I think it would appeal to a broad group of people.

I was super super excited for this, and it did not disappoint! Wellness dealt with a topic that I really enjoy reading about, & that’s aging, the gradual shifts in romantic relationships, the restlessness & dissatisfaction that time passing by can bring. This was a beautiful story about very flawed people going through a journey of self discovery & figuring out what really means the most to them. I loved every second of this and think it’s as good as the Nix. I hope Nathan Hill comes out with another book quickly, he’s become a favorite author!

Wellness book explores the evolution of the marriage of Jack and Elizabeth, from their vibrant involvement in the '90s Chicago art scene to the challenges of suburban life, parenting, and navigating modern. As they grapple with identity, unfulfilled ambitions, and past traumas, the couple faces an oddly humorous and moving journey to rediscover each other. Really gave my number 1 book of 2023 a run for its money- these characters will stay with me. It was clever and I loved that I was able to sink into it without worrying where it was going.

Wellness by Nathan Hill is the story of a married couple and how they originally met and how their marriage continued growing and changing throughout the years. I enjoyed the setting of Chicago. However, this story is very long. I enjoyed some of the extra information that was given while telling this couple’s story, but I didn’t feel invested enough in their story to appreciate the length of this book. Thanks to NetGalley for free digital review copy. All opinions are my own.

Wellness is a story of relationships, love, marriage, and what we value for our lives vs what society expects us to value in our lives. It encompasses growing up, growing older, changing perspectives and growing as a person, to try to live the lives we envision, but sometimes cannot control or plan. As a person of similar age as the couple depicted in the book, I felt so many of the conflicts and concerns were very similar to my experience in midlife, often funny, sometimes tragic, but very hopeful at the end. I loved the research embedded within the stories, and learned many interesting things along the way about art, history, relationships and psychology. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book (would make an excellent movie or mini-series!!) and look forward to reading other works by this author.

This book checks a lot of boxes for me: chunky book full of family drama, references to art, and smart writing. So it’s no surprise that I loved it.

Jack and Elizabeth are soul mates, or are they? Having met in their 20s in the thriving Chicago art scene, they are now parents to Toby and wondering what they are doing with their lives and each other. Their marriage has gone stale and their careers are at a standstill. Both go on a journey of self discovery to understand if marriage is really something they wish to continue in together.

One of my favorite parts of this book is how Hill is able to seamlessly transition between flashbacks to Jack and Elizabeth’s youth and their current lives. He seamlessly weaves threads through these different periods that all magically end up connecting in the end. I enjoyed watching everything come together in the plot as the book unfolded. 600 pages is a lot for a novel but Hill needed that space to take the journey we did with Elizabeth and Jack. There were a few places that felt unnecessarily repetitive, but otherwise it was a tight story.

I think if you enjoy other family sagas, like Franzen’s books or the recent sensation, The Bee Sting, this is another great one to check out!

The first book by Nathan Hill that I read. I flew through this book, the page count meant nothing to me. As a native Kansan, it was fun to see familiar places portrayed in a deep and meaningful way, normally these places are mocked or misunderstood. I definitely flip-flopped between liking and not liking the characters but happy with the character development throughout. I felt like I lived in their community and knew all the gossip!

What an absolutely lovely and charming novel. Nathan Hill has done it again! This book is somehow about both everything and nothing. It is a study of the human condition and yet not in a nerdy or boring way. It is fascinating. It is both hopeless and hopeful. Because every time something seems hopeless, the author shows you another side.

And let’s talk about the audiobook! Because Ari Flacos is one of my all-time favorite narrators, and he increases the level of charm tenfold. Do yourself a favor and get the audio.

Nathan Hill does it again. This was well worth the wait after The Nix.

The characters and relationships Nathan Hill builds are just incomparable. They are relatable and realistic. I will be recommending both books as must reads.

A very thought provoking, deep and witty novel. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Many thanks to Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor, and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion

Elizabeth and Jack meet in Chicago as college students. It’s love at first sight, or so they believe. Both are leaving behind a toxic home environment, his poor and her’s rich. Jack advances this art career through stylized photography and picks up a teaching position at his university. His school is run by a CFO rather than a traditional dean so faculty are gauged by their ability to draw research grant money: he says departments need to “earn their keep.”

Elizabeth’s works at a DePaul research lab that is researching the placebo effect. The name of their clinic is Wellness and they “test claims made by specious health-related products to see if the products achieved results any better than placebo.” For instance, the effect is more powerful when a (sugar) pill is given by a doctor in white lab coat then when it is given by a doctor in a dirty t-shirt. “The neurobiological mechanism for all of this was still a bit murky, everyone understood that the key to placebo’s strange and remarkable effectiveness was belief.”

Jack and Elizabeth are battling their own crisis of careers, but then there’s their son Toby, whom they’re trying to parent without ever having good parenting modeled for them. Nathan Hill hits another one out of the ballpark with this one.

After The Nix, I am 100% invested in whatever Nathan Hill is dreaming up. He has a knack for characters that feel so real they inevitably remind me of friends or heaven forbid, me. This was another flawless page turner from him.

Really enjoyed this. Parts lagged, like the dads dive into Facebook, and the end in terms of their relationship exploration felt rushed, but loved overall!