All Better Now is a Young adult dystopia exploring a pandemic that fundamentally changes the personalities of those that survive its virus.

The interweaving of the three main character's story line's was a particularly interesting element of the reading experience and I loved getting to see of how people starting in such different areas of pandemic experience effected each other.

A tale of a virus that causes death or blissful happiness. Some people want to contract it others want to eradicate it. Being someone who has read and loved 7 novels from this author I am disappointed. What I did enjoy is the concept of the plot but way too long of a novel.

Between the endless introduction of characters, to the repetitive word usage, to the lack of a entertaining storyline, to a forced romatic partnship, to a rushed ending. I did not enjoy.


Thank you Net Gallery for the ARC of this novel.

This book is definitely going to find an audience somewhere, but that audience is not me. I found this book pretentious and insufferable. I hated Rón, one of the main characters. Every antagonist (Glynis, Gelen, and Morgan) were comedically evil, to the point it didn’t even feel like they were real antagonists. The fact that they were purposely spreading a disease with a 5% mortality rate (1 in 25 people die) was just upsetting. Sure they’re happy for the last few minutes of their life but that’s it. Mariel and Belas are the only two characters who I had any semblance of care for. The rest of them were terrible. This felt underwhelming and the climax lasted one chapter. It didn’t feel eventful and none of the events tied together nicely. I know somebody will enjoy this book, but I think I’m just past this type of YA!

“What is a pandemic if not a kind of storm?”

“We always have choices. Even if they’re all bad ones, we still get to choose.”

“What makes you think truth and happiness ever share the same bed?”

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for letting me review this book. Neal Shusterman is one of my favorite authors; with “The Scythe” series being my favorite. This reminded me somewhat of Covid when it first started. People are getting the Crown Royal virus and some are dying yet others aren’t. This feels almost dystopian yet could be happening now. There have always been outliers and those that are virus carriers yet are immune. It’s interesting to see how people will react to the virus and it eerily mirrors what’s happening in the world today since Covid sprang up.

Thanks to Simon and Shuster and NetGalley for the digital egalley of this book. I am so sad I did not like it more. I LOVED the Scythe series but I don't know if this one is still too close to the Covid pandemic to have another pandemic book or if it was the characters attitudes to spreading the virus and to the idea of a vaccine but I could not get behind this book or the characters.

Mein Leseerlebnis

Endlich habe ich mal ein Buch von Neil Shusterman gelesen. Und auch wenn ich mit gemischten Gefühlen zurückgeblieben bin, so bin ich doch froh dem Jugendbuch (Thriller trifft Dystopie) eine Chance gegeben zu haben.

Die beiden Highlights im Buch waren für mich ganz klar der mitreißende Schreibstil des Autoren und seine Fantasie. Die von ihm geschaffene Welt wirkte auf mich faszinierend.

Doch leider gab es beim Lesen auch ein paar Punkte, die für mich nicht perfekt waren. So gab es Mittelteil meinem Empfinden nach einige Längen. Die Geschichte hätte auch gut mit weniger als 500 Seiten erzählt werden können.

Zudem wirkte es beim Lesen immer mal wieder so, als würden die Hauptcharaktere primär als Vehikel benutzt, um verschiedene Einstellungen zur Pandemie darzustellen. Sie selbst blieben in meinen Augen dadurch etwas blass, weshalb ich sie mir teils schlecht als richtige Menschen vorstellen konnte.

Nimmt man das zusammen, dann lande ich bei einer mittelmäßigen Bewertung. Es war interessant, mal etwas von dem Autoren zu lesen, zu weiteren Büchern von Shusterman werde ich in Zukunft aber wahrscheinlich nicht greifen.

🖤🖤🖤 1/4

Für wen?

Wer Jugendbücher spannend findet, in denen eine ganz besondere Pandemie und der Umgang damit im Mittelpunkt steht, für den könnte der Roman eine tolle Sache sein.

Interesting and quite unique prose - I enjoyed reading this. I'm not sure I love the cover, but the rest of the experience was quite good.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for letting me read this amazing book. You can’t go wrong with Neal Shusterman. His creativity never stops blowing me away, and this time, he’s dreamed up something wild: a variant of COVID called Crown Royale that actually makes people less self-centered and more at peace.

I won’t lie—there were moments that really made me stop and think, especially the scenes where people aren’t buying new stuff anymore, just recycling and fixing things. We’re all so driven by wants instead of needs, and this book is such a great reminder of what’s really important.

And Rón? How could you not love him? So many of us were that kid—depressed, confused, and carrying guilt for something we didn’t even understand. Seeing him finally at peace was just... beautiful.

I recommend this to everyone. It’s powerful, creative, and one of those books that makes you rethink the world.

Shusterman has written a very entertaining and thought-provoking young adult thriller in his latest work. Stand aside, COVID-19, there's a new pandemic sweeping the world. It's called "Crown Royale," and it kills 4% of those infected. The survivors, however, are forever altered with a profound sense of happiness, clarity, and contentment. The book mostly follows three young people: Rón, the son of a billionaire who battles depression; Mariel, who has been living in a car with her mother before her life becomes entangled with Rón's; and Morgan, ruthless and ambitious, who has recently been given the reins to a business empire and is determined to stop the spread of Crown Royale at any cost. I thought both the pacing and characters were great, and the premise is highly creative. This is a thoughtful exploration of power and morality. Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing | Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers for a digital review copy.

This book is a very relevant and thought provoking story. We are not all that far from the Covid 19 pandemic and lock down, so I think this will resonate with a lot of middle school/high school students.
The premise is very clever - there is a high survival rate to this new virus, but there is not a 100% survival rate. Those who survive end up with an intriguing change: the inability to feel anger, depression, sadness, etc.
The concern by some that this changes people fundamentally and will create herds of sheep is an interesting twist. The two different viewpoint about the danger of this virus' after effects are fascinating, and I think this will create a lot of great discussions in classrooms.
This is another brilliant novel by Neal Shusterman, and I am excited to order copies for our middle school library. Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for the e-galley!

Neal Schusterman has done it again! This book hooked me from the second I started it. Schusterman does such a great job of setting each stage. Even though there are many different characters, each one has a story so in depth that you start to think that you know each of them. The story is told with such detail that you can actually picture everything happening. Despite it being a dystopian book, it starts to feel as though it could really happen from the beginning.

Thank you to NetGalley for the chance to read this story.

I've been a Shusterman fan for years as a school librarian, so the chance to read his newest title was most welcome. And it did not disappoint.

In this timely tale, two young people become the focus of a new pandemic. But this is not a story of Covid-19. Crown Royale changes its victims in ways that may impact civilization. Survivors find they've discovered a compelling need to find the bright side of life, to be content, to help others even at their own risk. They've discovered a secret that they want to share with everyone. Naturally, there are those who feel differently. And so the contest begins.

Characters are well drawn, and the plot moves along at a steady pace, reaching a crescendo and ... oh, I'm not going to spoil the ending.

Shusterman raises and explores important questions through his characters's thoughts and actions. Readers are not told what to think but are challenged to consider some of the complex ideas raised; no easy or simple answers emerge. I'd love to read and discuss this with students.

This book reminds me a lot of Neal Shusterman's Arc of the Scythe series, but I don't think this story was as well executed. All Better Now takes place in the near future and references the management/fall out of the Covid-19 pandemic in relation to how this new pandemic is unfolding. The new pandemic has a higher mortality rate at first and the recovery results in people who become extremely altruistic. Like altruistic to the point of ignoring their own needs. There's a scene early in the book where multiple recoverees jump into the San Fransico Bay to assist a boat that has overturned. The thing is even people who couldn't swim jumped in resulting in their death.

The three teens that the book centered around are not just from different backgrounds, they each have their own agenda/outlook on Crown Royal (this universe's new pandemic). The dynamic between the separate storylines is interesting, but I felt like the antagonist's storyline was too vague. There wasn't enough characterization of them for to understand why they were doing what they were doing. The antagonist wants to find a vaccine for Crown Royal because they believe the disease is taking away people's choices. During the vaccine process, their company also creates all kinds of negative spin. The negative spin has a lot of real-world impacts including violence against recoverees. Obviously, there is a parallel between this negative spin to the violence against Asian Americans during the Covid-19 pandemic, but there isn't really any character reaction to it till the tail end of the book.

I did really enjoy the littler interjections of stories from around the world and how Crown Royal was affecting those places. I thought that added some humanity to the book and fleshed the story out. I liked this book, I just felt like there could have been more character building and development. It was an interesting read, but I don't think I'd read the second book.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the advance co

Shusterman delivers a pandemic tale like only he can--with societal critique wrapped up in a fast paced package that teens will devour.

Neal Shusterman delivers a thought-provoking and poignant exploration of healing, identity, and resilience in All Better Now. With his signature blend of emotional depth and razor-sharp prose, Shusterman crafts a narrative that lingers long after the last page. Perfect for fans of contemporary fiction with a touch of raw honesty, this book is a must-read for those who appreciate stories about finding strength in the most unexpected places.

I enjoyed this book greatly and it is right up there with most of the books I have read from him. The characters are always interesting and flawed, but in the best ways. There was a touch of some woke dei in this book that haven't seen from the author before, and that was a little disappointing. But it was slight and fleeting and only interrupted for a few chapters. I just wanted to mention if you have your teens read it. There is love, action, adventure, and mystery. The fact that this takes place after a Covid world feels so real and like this can actually happen. Both sides in this book seem right at times, and both seem wrong. I think it is what makes it so interesting. Covid was polarizing and this virus in the book takes it a big step further. . I really got a kick out of this book and look forward to the author's next one!

#allBetterNowBook #Netgalley

I’ve been a big fan of Neal Shusterman’s since I first read Unwind in 2011/12, and I’ve loved being able to recommend his novels to students since I’ve been a teacher.

Being able to read an ARC of this through his publisher and NetGalley excited me both as a long-time fan and as an opportunity to be one of the first to recommend this to my students!

I am glad to say that I am VERY excited to recommend this to my students.

It’s got a lot of Shusterman’s hallmarks, interesting characters, interweaving perspectives and storylines, a deeply considered sci-fi premise and a great amount of action to propel you through a pretty long novel.

I really liked the characters on both sides of the conflict. Ròn and Mariel are great and are interesting symbols of their side of the story, Morgan and Blas on the other are also really great. I quibbled a little bit with that I often found it difficult to know which side to root for. But that makes for interesting discussions about the nature of protagonists and antagonists with my students!

The way Shusterman builds the world and buoys it with interesting characters with interesting perspectives has always been a favorite of mine and this book is no exception.


I really loved this and I am sure my students will too.

Wow, this is my first book to read by this author and I was swept away. My students love his books so when I saw this was up to read I wanted to see what I had been missing. I also met him in person at TLA and was super amazed at just how down-to-earth he seemed to be.
Now, onto this lovely review.
This was a great topic I actually had with my husband and then my coworkers.
What if there was a virus that could make you happy? Would you be good with that and not wanting a vaccine.
We follow different people throughout our story and see how each one of them plays a huge role in this I am going to call it a "happy virus" though just like with any virus we sometimes have casualties. Why would this "happy virus" not be any good? Well as it seems our economy will be affected because everyone will be willing to just hand things over to people as they no longer need it or want it.
We have one person who can not catch this to save her life, but she sees what it does to others and no matter what she does she can not catch it. We have another teenager who caught the virus, and his mission is to be a superspreader. Another person had already put in the work to create a vaccine to stop this virus from going any further, but when she ends up catching the virus her whole life changes and she realizes that just maybe there shouldn't be one.
Each person plays a part in this story and you see just to what lengths people will go to, to get their way. This is one book I am going to put in my library once I have the money from budget as I know my students are going to eat this one up.

I find myself really heart broken by the messages of the book.

In the early days of COVID, before many protections were in place (though my area listened to few of those protections even later), I had to go grocery shopping. I remember an old woman, tiny little thing, wearing a mask, a face shield, and gloves trying to stay as far away from anyone and everyone as possible. Three people, old enough to know better but maybe not old enough to grasp their cruelty went up to her and started coughing on her. She was scared and the people around her did not take that fear seriously.

This book kept reminding of that moment. Most of the book has little care for other people. Both sides of the "war" are doing what they are doing largely for their own self interests.

There is a moment later on where they are discussing how people on a bus are on a bus because they've either accepted the chance of getting sick or actively want to get sick. Maybe that is true for some but anyone having lived through COVID knows many people were exposed who had no choice in the matter and this book completely ignores that fact from both sides. There is a flippant attitude about lives and peoples' choice.

I honestly don't know how I would have responded to this book as a teenager or someone who was a teenager during COVID. I can see it being just stressful in general no matter where you fall on the spectrum of fears coming out of 2020. I'll avoid spoilers but every layer I pealed back with the plotlines and characters of this book was worse and worse the more you thought about it.

As for the writing. I enjoy Shusterman's style. I liked the sections of the book from other perspectives that turn out to be important later. I think it could have been way shorter or it should have been longer with a better foundation for the morals and ethics of what everyone is doing. As it stands, I didn't really enjoy the book. I'll have to think twice before reading if this becomes a longer series.

UNPUTDOWNABLE. A blend of characters that will keep you wondering, hoping, praying. Humanity at the core of catastrophy.