This read was weird very different ghost scare me so my imagination went everywhere lol but overall it was good

Thank you NetGalley and Liveright for the opportunity to read and review this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A quick mystery full of quirky characters and secrets. Although this is listed as an adult debut this read like a YA novel more suited for my middle schooler. It had great potential but this just wasn’t for me. 2.5 stars rounded up.

First off this should not be listed as an adult novel- it is 100% YA. I didn't enjoy the story because it bored me and the characters were lacking in every way. This just was not my kind of book.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of Happy People Don't Live Here.

Alice and her precocious daughter, Fern, are recent arrivals at the Pine Lake Apartments, a former sanitorium now a rundown apartment.

The neighbors are quirky and offbeat, not to mention the non-living residents, the ghosts that roam the grounds and complex.

When Fern discovers a dead body in the dumpster, her investigation unearths her neighbors' secrets, including her mom's and a non-mortal friend.

But it is only through confronting your fears and worries can we make amends and move on with our life, in this world and the next.

I liked Fern, she was smart, courageous and not afraid to think outside the box.

But I wasn't a fan of the story.

First, I found the writing style distracting; it was very stream of consciousness and there are not quotation marks when a character speaks.

The tone is more YA-ish, not adult since Fern's POV dominates most of the narrative.

Second, I'm not sure what this is about.

Is it about Alice and her bad childhood and crappy parents that led her to into a relationship with an even worse man?

Is it about the past that always haunts us? Is that what the ghosts represent?

Is it about confronting your trauma and moving on despite your fears and worries?

Is it about how people are never really happy, but we just move on with life because that's what living is?

This is one of many books I've read in which the main character is running from an abusive relationship

I didn't like Alice because she was less developed and was a standard trope, but the rest of the neighbors were more interesting like Mrs. Teasdale, Zillah, and Undine.

The ending is more HEA than I expected, but even not happy people deserve happy endings.

Kittentits meets My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She's Sorry. Quirky little read full of ghosts, odd neighbors, and a whole lot of heart. I saw the vision and could appreciate it, but felt this could have been improved with a bit more editing. Sparks' voice doesn't feel too clear and the narrative meanders without purpose at times.

though it’s listed as adult fiction, i feel like that’s pretty misleading. this is a fantastic YA horror novel, a perfect introduction to the genre for middle to upper grade teenagers. the book is thrilling and whimsical but not graphic in any way—even the violence is extremely tame or completely ignored. i don’t think publishing this as adult fiction is a good idea, i think publishing it as YA and tweaking some of the language will yield better results, both finance wise and review wise. as a 25 year old, i felt like i would’ve loved this book when i was 14, but not so much now. it was cute but not for me at my age.