ALL BETTER NOW Sneak Peek

"A thought-provoking and grimly enjoyable tale... A virus that kills some but leaves those who recover utterly happy and filled with empathy" - Kirkus 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.”

Chapter 1: Mariel Rides Space Mountain

It was the wrong time to be living on the streets.

Not that there was ever a right time, but this new disease— it was picking up steam, threatening to be another pandem— No. No, Mariel didn’t even want to invoke the P word. As if just thinking it would make it so.

“It’s not so bad, baby,” her mother told her. “It’s not like we gotta be near people. Even out here we can find ways to isolate. We don’t gotta be near anyone if we don’t want to be.”

Mariel’s mother lived in denial. Truly lived there. If denial were a solid piece of real estate, Gena Mudroch would have a mansion on it. Or at least a garage so they’d finally have a safe and legal place to park their beat-up Fiesta.

Right now it was parked, all right. Behind a fence at the impound. Which was why Mariel and Gena were standing on a dark street in the seediest, industrial part of town, in the middle of the night, waiting on someone who was, in theory, going to help them break their car out.