All Better Now
by Neal Shusterman
High School    Simon    528 pp.
2/25    9781534432758    $21.99
e-book ed.  9781534432772    $12.99

In the near future, the Crown Royale virus is wreaking havoc on the world. One in every twenty-five people who contract it will die from it, but those who recover experience a blissful, euphoric state. This has advantages and disadvantages, both for individuals and for society. These fertile conditions allow Shusterman to leverage his prodigious imaginative and storytelling skills, as well as the inherent moral ambiguity of the premise, to tell the tales of three young adults. Mariel Mudroch and her mother, perpetually down on their luck, treat themselves to a luxury rental in San Francisco for one night. They are ushered into it by Rón Escobedo, sixteen-year-old son of the third richest man in the world, who owns the property. Meanwhile, in London, Morgan Willmon-Wu, nineteen, has been handpicked by elderly curmudgeon Dame Havilland for her resourcefulness. Morgan will inherit a considerable estate and the charge to eradicate the virus from the Earth. Gradually, their stories begin to converge—and before the expansive plot reaches its denouement, there will be twists and turns, surprises and revelations, intriguing characters and far-flung settings, and plenty of food for thought.

From the ">May/June 2025 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.