Many thanks to NetGalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Okay I tried to stay mostly spoiler free but there might be some hints to things in here that you want to avoid.

Where to even start with this book 😱

If you thought Dry was a lot, buckle up for this one!

Let me start by saying I DEVOURED this book. I did not want to put it down. I woke up early to read it, I read it on breaks at work, I was so completely engrossed.

This is a magnificent work. All the characters had their own unique drive and storyline while still all interconnecting in this complicated web. Just masterfully done all around.

There aren’t enough positive words to be able to express how much I loved this book. But as much as I loved it I was also horrified by it at many parts. Neal has a shocking talent for writing stories that are just close enough to reality to actually be scary. This felt heavily in that category, especially in the wake of Covid.

I loved and hated every single character and by god THAT ENDING?!? Neal please, why???

If I had one tiny complaint it would be I wish we got more at the end but I do understand the vision with the current ending.

I also just wanna applaud him for how action packed this book is. I didn’t realize until I was trying to explain all the moving parts to someone but there is like five active storylines at one time and they are all doing different things but you gotta remember who did what because it’s coming back around. Just so complex overall that I’m actually very grateful I read it because had I listened to it instead I might have missed a lot of the foreshadowing going on.

I have so many thoughts and feelings and reactions that I’ll probably be working through for a while but overall it is absolutely amazing! Be prepared to lose your social life to this book! Could not recommend more!

My Rating:⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A new pandemic has arisen. Crown Royale kills 4% of the infected and rewires the survivors with permanent happiness, generosity, and selflessness. Opinions are sharply divided as to whether this will save or destroy humanity. Rón, the depressive son of a billionaire, is desperate for Crown Royale's bliss. Ruthless Morgan has just been given a fortune to ensure the virus' destruction. Practical, homeless Mariel occupies the midpoint, able to see both the benefits and the perils of this watershed moment. Shusterman presents another tapestry of high emotions and horrifying possibilities populated by inevitably interconnected teens.

3.5

First, I love Neal Shusterman. “Challenger Deep” is one of my favorite books and believe it should be required reading. I was so so SO excited to receive this as an ARC. The premise is an intriguing thought experience on what happens when a virus has the ability to eliminate all negative feelings. As a therapist, this was a gold mine to read.

What is a world where our ability to feel hurt, pain, grief and need ? No depression?? All that remains is inner peace, who wouldn’t jump at the chance? This books does a decent job at making a case for why all feelings are important and serve a purpose, even the painful ones. Feelings are just messengers, what happens when you kill the messenger?

For me, the writing is superb, as always. I flew through this - a very compelling read. That said, this post-pandemic dystopia was rubbing salt in a still-healing wound. There are mask mandates, races to a find a cure, and misinformation running amuck. The timing just hit too close to home and left me cringing at the mention of ‘rona.

This is a smart book, great character development and asks big questions. I love a book that gets under my skin and makes me itch, no pun intended. If I read this 5 years from now, maybe I would have slightly less pandemic PTSD.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my always honest reviews.

Final grade: B+, not all better…yet.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect with a book about a pandemic, but this book puts a different spin on it. Sure to be a YA bestseller!

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review.

Although an interesting premise, this one ultimately fell a little flat for me. I didn’t understand if the author was trying to make the pandemic into a metaphor or what he meant to do? And I couldn’t get my mind off of that.

Neal Shusterman’s newest book series is sure to go viral! With interesting characters and a page-turning plot, readers won’t be able to put it down!

What if a new pandemic either killed you or made you a person who was compelled to take care of others? What if you were surrounded by survivors, so happy in their new mindset, and you found yourself immune to the virus and longing for the peacefulness that surviving it brings? What happens to the economy if people stop consuming and look to repair or recycle everything? What if the oligarch survivors start giving their money away? What would their heirs do if their parents caught the virus?
How much would governments pay for scientists to create a vaccine and is a vaccine the only way to solve the problem?
This dystopia, on the heels of the Covid pandemic, poses a lot of interesting questions for discussion.

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