Alex Campbell, Cloud 9, Hot Key Books, 1 Sept 2015, 325pp., $16.95 (pbk), ISBN 9781471403545
Leata is the pill that guarantees your happiness so everyone, say the makers, should take it. Hope knows Leata helps to block those life events that you don’t want to face and she swallows at least one a day, blogging its beautiful effects to her nearly 2 million followers on livelifewithhope. It’s hard to understand why anyone would protest against taking this happy pill because it’s completely harmless, as everyone (except Tom’s dad) would say. Now he’s dead but Hope isn’t friends with Tom anymore so she can hardly console him over his father’s unfortunate suicide. Tom and Hope used to be such good friends, though, that it seems wrong that Tom has to suffer so much and won’t take inspiration from the multitude of platitudes that feature on the wrapper of Leata. Maybe Hope can turn Tom’s story into a terrific blog post, chronicling his journey from NAD (Negative Affective Disorder) boy to Leata convert? But this turns out to be much harder than Hope thinks, as reconnecting with Tom brings out what she used to be like before Leata – brave and rebellious. Life is not as rosy as she had convinced herself that it was – in fact, there are some very dark moments in her life. As Leata’s secret is revealed, Hope and Tom face danger together, revealing some horrible truths about their families and themselves.
This is an exciting mystery that carries the reader on a wave of action until its quick and almost deflating end. The sobering reality of a world without Leata could be catastrophic but instead things are tied up fairly neatly. Despite this disappointing finale, this is a great story that scarily reflects some aspects of contemporary society – the prevalence of inspirational (but empty) quotes, the need for likes and followers, the importance of a persuasive and popular online presence. The structure of the alternating his and her chapters seems overly complex with changes of points of view but still this is overall a thrilling read.
Reviewed by Pam Harvey
