All Better Now

All Better Now

Neal Shusterman

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From New York Times bestselling author Neal Shusterman comes a young adult thriller about a world where happiness becomes contagious and the teens caught in the conspiracy by the powers that be to bring back discontent. An unprecedented condition is on the rise. It behaves like a virus, with the first symptom being a fever, but those who contract it experience long-term effects no one has ever seen utter contentment. Soon after infection, people find the stress, depression, greed, and other negative feelings that used to weigh them down are gone. Almost everyone revels in this mass unburdening. But people in power—who depend on malcontents tuning into their broadcasts, prey on the insecure to sell their products, and convince people they need more, new, faster, better everything—know this new state of being is bad for business. Soon, campaigns start up convincing people that being happy all the time is dangerous. There’s even a vaccine developed to rid people of their inner peace and get them back to normal because, surely, without anger or jealousy as motivators, productivity will grind to a halt and the world will be thrown into chaos. It’s nearly impossible to determine the truth when everyone with a platform is pushing their own agendas, and two teens from very different backgrounds who’ve had their lives upended in different ways by the virus find themselves enmeshed in the center of a dangerous power play. Can they reveal the truth?


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  • wwrlad
    Apr 01, 2025
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  • Missy_Reading89
    Apr 12, 2025
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    If you knew that catching a new sickness would change your outlook on life to only find the good, would you chance to get sick? This is the question the characters within All Better Now face as a new pandemic has emerged. We follow characters as they live through a second pandemic and how each chooses to handle the idea of getting sick. I found this book utterly fascinating in the first 30% because, as the reader, we are learning about this new sickness and trying to figure out if it is good or bad. I personally didn't agree with some of the characters and their choices after being exposed to Crown Royal. I think this is a well-written book, and I think that Shusterman does a great job at writing engaging dystopian, but I prefer the Arc of the Scythe trilogy better than this.

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  • HYD3_ONLIN3
    Apr 07, 2025
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