I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

A deadly and unprecedented virus is spreading. But those who survive it experience long-term effects no one has ever seen before: utter contentment. Soon after infection, people find the stress, depression, greed, and other negative feelings that used to weigh them down are gone.

More and more people begin to revel in the mass unburdening. But not everyone. People in power—who depend on malcontents and prey on the insecure to sell their products, and convince others they need more, new, faster, better everything—know this new state of being is bad for business. Surely, without anger or jealousy as motivators, productivity will grind to a halt and the world will be thrown into chaos. Campaigns start up to convince people that being eternally happy is dangerous. The race to find a vaccine begins. Meanwhile, a growing movement of Recoverees plan ways to spread the virus as fast as they can, in the name of saving the world.

It’s nearly impossible to determine the truth when everyone with a platform is pushing their agenda. Three teens from very different backgrounds who’ve had their lives upended in very different ways find themselves at the center of a power play that could change humanity forever.

Short and Sweet Review

There’s a new virus infecting people called Crown Royale and people who get it end up being content, they no longer have negative feelings and are pretty much optimists. There are two different sides people who want to spread the virus and others who want to find a vaccine and take precautions. It’s hard to know which side is right but throughout the book we get to see multiple points of views and get to determine for ourselves how we would proceed.

All Better Now, has three main characters Ron, Mariel, and Morgan, we get to see all three characters POVs and also other characters sprinkled in. Ron is wealthy but he’s also been sheltered by his father and Ron doesn’t care if he gets the virus which is why he risks it and leaves the safety of his penthouse to experience the world. Mariel is not rich she’s used to struggling and sleeping in the car with her mom, one day she meets Ron and sleeps in the penthouse but after that they go their separate ways, but they end up meeting again. Ron learns he’s a superspreader and Mariel learns she’s immune and they end up pairing up and going on a road trip. Morgan ends up getting the estate of a wealthy woman who gets Crown Royale and believes she’s dying. Morgan makes it her mission to find a vaccine for the virus. Out of the characters Morgan was my least favorite followed by Ron, Mariel was the only one who had compassion for what was going around her and used common sense. Morgan she’s one of those people who didn’t grow up well off so when she gets the money she becomes a monster and I will say her ending was kind of satisfying. Ron the superspreader wants everyone to experience the joy and happiness he is and he thinks he can infect people whether they want Crown Royale or not. Luckily, Mariel is with him and she’s usually able to rein him in and try to explain to him why he can’t just upend other peoples lives. Anyway I enjoyed this book and we got to see the pros and cons for each cause to let Crown Royale spread or not and I thought our characters were interesting too, we have a superspreader someone who’s all for it getting to everyone, Morgan who wants to find a vaccine, and Mariel who’s immune so she can see the argument for both sides. I enjoyed following the characters on their journey through this book and I think they learn a lot about themselves and how they handle different things, I did like seeing the shorter chapters and how other countries were dealing with the virus.

Overall, this is a very thought provoking novel and it’s well executed. The premise of this book is what truly drew me in, and I loved how Shusterman had characters for each side of the argument and us as readers could decide for ourselves who was right or wrong. I would recommend this book, it’s one you’re not going to want to put down and when you’re finished you’ll be thinking about it for a few days.