SuitabookHappyHead
Josh Silver
- Reading
- Because the premise grows darker and the conclusion is abrupt, discuss reactions as the book progresses rather than waiting until the end. Pause around the retreat’s isolation, identity pressures and changing trust.
- Themes
- Happiness and self-improvement: Sebastian joins a project claiming to offer an answer to teenage unhappiness and tries to focus genuinely on self-improvement. The premise examines competing ideas about wellbeing and whether happiness can be produced by a programme.
- Identity and belonging: Sebastian is described as being closeted and as struggling alongside other teenagers selected for the project. The book’s stance on this remains unclear.
- Institutional trust and control: A researcher isolates 17-year-olds from friends, families and phones in a Scottish wilderness retreat, where the positive surface soon seems suspicious. The book leaves its stance open to more than one reading.
- Worth knowing
- The book involves anxiety, bullying, being closeted, isolation from family and friends, and a retreat that feels sinister. Expect suspense and psychological discomfort; the precise severity of harmful events is unclear.