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Unfortunately, I don’t find the statement „Like Hunger Games but better“ on the cover appropriate. On the one hand, it’s too judgmental and subjective a statement, and on the other, the stories and characters are just massively different. In my opinion, you can also promote a book/audiobook with its own qualities and don’t have to resort to such an inappropriate comparison. Seb is an engaging and somewhat naïve young man and the author has created a personal trajectory for him which allows for his qualities of resilience and self-confidence to be expressed. The author captures well the push/pull of adolescence between Seb’s wanting to succeed at the program to please his parents and his wanting to establish his individualism and self-direction. As the novel is written in the first person and the present tense, Seb’s thoughts and responses to what happens around him are immediately available to the reader and this adds an authenticity to the narrative.
Ein bisschen punktabzug weil, auch wenn der schreibstil eigentlich ganz gut war, da zu viele so pop culture references und „slang“ drin war. idk wie ich’s beschrieben soll aber das hat für mich irgendwie nicht ganz da rein gepasst, ohne das wärs viel besser gewesen. So tense doesn't quite cut it. It's SO GOOD!' -- A.F. Steadman, author of Skandar and the Unicorn Thief
Synopsis
Sue Walkman said of HappyHead by Josh Silver that it was like ‘Hunger Games’ but better. Quite a compliment! I was immediately engrossed with this. Silver’s writing allows you become immersed with Seb’s experiences working through both the HappyHead process and his own identity, as they seem not to fit together. From the beginning, there are undertones of disquiet - something feels off; I believed my brain had been programmed to persevere at all costs, and to discover the motives and person behind all of these perplexing cogs. There are some similar elements to Hunger Games, but I wouldn’t directly compare it. Maybe it is a little similar to Squid Game, but still different. I’m not sure about dystopia, either. I would say HappyHead is a YA thriller. It is tense, fast-paced, and thought-provoking. Bestselling author Alexandra Christo, author of TikTok sensation To Kill a Kingdom, introduces her new book, The Night Hunt (Hot Key Books), a dark... The pacing of the story was wonderful; everything started slowly and just got more and more oppressive as time went on. Seb was also wonderfully chosen as the protagonist. He has such a fascinating and human and approachable character that I immediately found myself empathizing with him. Seb is just SO far from perfect and yet not pitiful, ( just a typical, realistic teenager) that I couldn’t help but like him.
What I really liked, though, was the linguistic finesse with which Seb and his insecurities and fears were portrayed. When the voice suddenly became so high-pitched and squeaky and anxious .... God, I got goosebumps!Some important things to note - this is not a predominantly romance book, but it does have an M/M undertone- there's no steam (please don't be put off by that) - the MCs do NOT get a HEA or even a HFN by the end. It ends on a cliffhanger and sets up a sequel well. My heart was in my mouth. As is often the case, the „love story“ / „attraction“ went far too fast for me and I couldn’t follow it all at all. I wonder if sometimes it wouldn’t be better to just leave things vague (without any intimate things happening) and leave the reader alone with their imagination. But maybe emotions are formed differently in such extreme situations than under normal circumstances. I don’t know. because of the details I mentioned above, but I will round it to 4 because it was a well-imagined YA Squid Game equivalent. When Seb is offered a place on a radical retreat designed to solve the national crisis of teenage unhappiness, he is determined to change how people see him and make his parents proud. But as he finds himself drawn to the enigmatic Finn, Seb starts to question the true nature of the challenges they must undergo. The deeper into the programme the boys get, the more disturbing the assessments become, until it’s clear there may be no escape …
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