Books: More Happy Than Not

Adam Silvera has a lot in common with Aaron Soto, his protagonist in More Happy Than Not. Both grew up in a one-bedroom apartment in the Bronx, with a distant brother and an overworked, single mom. And both have to navigate the dangerous business of coming out as gay in a culture of machismo and violence. Aaron undergoes a memory erasure procedure at the Leteo Institute in response to the prejudices in his community, to try to be "normal." Not surprisingly, trying to bend himself to those expectations doesn’t solve anything.