Adam Silvera’s debut novel arrived in 2015 and established immediately that he was a writer willing to do the thing most YA avoids: tell a story where the pain is structural rather than incidental, where the problem cannot be solved by the right relationship or the right attitude, where the world itself is part of what hurts.

More Happy Than Not is set in the South Bronx. Aaron Soto is sixteen, Puerto Rican, recently survived a suicide attempt, and living in a neighbourhood where being gay is the kind of thing that happens to other people — or so the neighbourhood insists. In this world, there is a procedure called the Leteo Institute that can selectively erase memories. Aaron finds himself thinking about it in ways he’s not ready to examine.

The Premise

The science fiction element — memory erasure as real medical procedure, available to those who can afford or qualify for it — is the book’s most interesting structural choice. Silvera uses it not as a gimmick but as a mirror: if you could choose to forget who you are, would you? And if the answer is yes, what does that say about what the world has done to you?

This is not a question the book asks abstractly. It asks it about Aaron, specifically, in his specific neighbourhood, in his specific family, and the answer is not a comfortable one.

Aaron

Aaron is brilliantly rendered — funny in the way Silvera’s protagonists often are, deeply loyal, trying to manage grief and sexuality and poverty and expectation simultaneously while barely keeping any of it contained. His voice is immediate and specific, unmistakably from the world he inhabits rather than a generic YA protagonist dropped into a setting.

The friendship that develops between Aaron and Thomas is the emotional engine of the book, and Silvera handles it with extraordinary care. Both characters are real to each other and to the reader, which makes the book’s later movements hit with the force they need.

Why YA Readers Will Love This

More Happy Than Not is for readers who want fiction that takes them somewhere genuinely unfamiliar — not unfamiliar in a fantasy sense but in the more demanding sense of a world and a life and a set of pressures they may not have encountered before.

For LGBTQ readers, particularly readers of colour, this book is one of the rare YA novels that tells a story set in their world rather than a world that has been smoothed for a presumed majority reader. Silvera does not translate or explain the South Bronx for outsiders. He writes from inside it.

For readers who have ever considered editing themselves — cutting out the parts that cause friction, becoming easier to love at the cost of being less yourself — Aaron’s story is an argument written in story form for why that bargain costs more than it saves.

Silvera went on to write History Is All You Left Me, They Both Die at the End, and more. Read this one first. It is where his voice is at its most raw and his argument at its most personal.

Published: June 2015 · Genre: YA contemporary · Standalone

Frequently Asked Questions

What is More Happy Than Not about? Aaron Soto is sixteen, Puerto Rican, recently survived a suicide attempt, and living in the South Bronx in a neighbourhood where being gay is ’the kind of thing that happens to other people — or so the neighbourhood insists.’ In this world, the Leteo Institute offers selective memory erasure. Aaron finds himself thinking about using it in ways he’s not ready to examine. The review says Silvera tells ‘a story where the pain is structural rather than incidental, where the world itself is part of what hurts.’

What does the memory erasure premise allow Adam Silvera to explore? The Leteo Institute’s memory erasure is described as ’the book’s most interesting structural choice — used not as a gimmick but as a mirror: if you could choose to forget who you are, would you? And if the answer is yes, what does that say about what the world has done to you?’ The review emphasises this question is asked ’not abstractly’ but about Aaron specifically, in his specific neighbourhood and family.

How is Aaron Soto characterised in More Happy Than Not? Aaron is described as ‘brilliantly rendered — funny in the way Silvera’s protagonists often are, deeply loyal, trying to manage grief and sexuality and poverty and expectation simultaneously while barely keeping any of it contained.’ His voice is ‘immediate and specific, unmistakably from the world he inhabits rather than a generic YA protagonist dropped into a setting.’

Who is the ideal reader for More Happy Than Not? The review identifies three audiences: readers who want fiction that takes them somewhere genuinely unfamiliar; LGBTQ readers of colour who will find ‘one of the rare YA novels that tells a story set in their world rather than a world smoothed for a presumed majority reader’; and readers ‘who have ever considered editing themselves — cutting out parts that cause friction.’ Aaron’s story is called ‘an argument written in story form’ for why that bargain costs more than it saves.

Where does More Happy Than Not fit in Adam Silvera’s career? More Happy Than Not is Silvera’s debut, and the review recommends reading it before his subsequent work — History Is All You Left Me, They Both Die at the End, and more. It is described as the book where ‘his voice is at its most raw and his argument at its most personal,’ establishing him as ‘a writer willing to do the thing most YA avoids.’

Further Reading from Authoritative Sources

  • More Happy Than Not — Wikipedia’s More Happy Than Not article provides publication details and critical reception that helps readers understand the novel’s impact on LGBTQ YA fiction and Silvera’s career.
  • the South Bronx — Wikipedia’s South Bronx article provides geographical and socioeconomic context for the setting that Silvera renders from the inside, helping readers understand the neighbourhood’s specificity and what it means for Aaron’s story.