eBook Review - HappyHead

I've been sitting on this review for a while as I'm not sure how to write it. Even now, I'm still not exactly sure how I feel about this, but I wanted to show you guys that I have read this. 

The backstory to this is the same as some of my other reads of late: I originally had an eProof from the lovely publisher via NetGalley. However, over Easter weekend, my Amazon was hacked/deleted, all my eProofs got wiped off my kindle. But, I saw this on sale for 99p, I bought it without a second thought, as this book intrigued me as soon as I first heard it. 

Title and Author: HappyHead by Josh Silver

Publisher: Rock The Boat

Bought, Borrowed or Gifted: Bought but I did have eProof via NetGalley in exchange for honest review/reaction

Buy From (Affiliate): Bookshop.org 

When Seb is offered a place at a radical retreat to tackle the national crisis of teenage unhappiness, he is determined to do well. But he find himself being pulled to the mysterious Finn, Seb begins to realise that there's something deeply wrong with HappyHead as the tasks that are meant to be help their wellbeing become more and more disturbing...

Like I said in my first sentence, I been sitting on this for a while because I am completely torn over how I feel about this book. This book has really strong positives that work in its favour but, at the same time, there is one big issue that we can't escape from. 

The positives. Let's start there. I loved the idea of this book tackling mental health and how people we trust can abuse the level of trust and power, use people's  mental health and gaslighting to their advance. We see it in the news so often about people in position of trust who go on the misuse it to horrible and dangerous effect (yes, I was reading this when the Phillip Scofield story broke and am writing this on the Sunday when the mystery BBC presenter story is beginning to come out). The same goes with gay conversion.

Also, I really liked our lead character of Seb. He's relatable, a bit naive, desperate to please. We've all been there, haven't we, as teenagers? He's gay and it's nice of have a lead queer character where their sexuality identity isn't the driving force of the story. Plus, Seb's internal voice is really funny. Very dark, very sarcastic, and it made me warm to him within the first few chapters. 

I also liked the writing. Josh Silver's writing was easy to read and was compulsive reading. It wasn't the the most descriptive writing, but there were chapters that tackled Seb's mental health that were gripping and were the best chapters in the whole story. 

I did say there was one big issue that I had with this book and there was no way I could escape it: I feel like I read this before and it has been done better, There were feels of dystopian novels and TV shows that tackle the set-up better. 

Am I going to read the second and final book in this series? Yeah, I think so. It was an addictive holiday, read on the beach with a nice cocktail. But it didn't leave much of an impact. Hopefully, with the next book, it was give us a sucker-punch. Plus, with Taron Egergton going to adapt the book into a movie, I think this will make a really interesting and gripping movie.