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Silver, Josh

ENTRY TYPE: new

WORK TITLE: Dead Happy
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY: Manchester, England
STATE:
COUNTRY: United Kingdom
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RESEARCHER NOTES:

PERSONAL

Born 1989.

EDUCATION:

Attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

ADDRESS

  • Home - Manchester, England.
  • Agent - Becky Bagnell, Lindsay Literary Agency, 9 Kingsway, London WC2B 6XF, England.

CAREER

Actor, nurse, and writer. Worked as an actor in theatrical productions in London, England, including Blue Stockings, Shakespeare’s Globe; Trelawny of the “Wells,” Donmar Warehouse; Wolf Hall/Bring Up the Bodies, Aldwych Theatre, 2014; and Photograph 51, Noël Coward Theatre, 2015; and in New York, NY; worked full-time as a mental health nurse, switched to part-time; speaker in schools, at conferences, and on panels.

AWARDS:

YA Book Prize shortlist, 2024, for HappyHead.

WRITINGS

  • "HAPPYHEAD" YOUNG-ADULT DUOLOGY
  • HappyHead, Rock the Boat/Oneworld Publications (London, England), 2023, Delacorte Press (New York, NY), 2024
  • Dead Happy, Rock the Boat/Oneworld Publications (London, England), 2024, Delacorte Press (New York, NY), 2025
  • YOUNG-ADULT NOVELS
  • TraumaLand, Faber (London, England), 2025
  • ,
  • ,

The “HappyHead” duology has been optioned for film by Range Media Partners.

SIDELIGHTS

[open new]Josh Silver is a British actor-turned-author who broke onto the young-adult scene with a compelling dystopian duology. He was raised on a farm in the Lake District, in northwestern England’s Cumbria region, alongside an identical twin. His family was highly religious, leading the young Silver, who recognized his identity as gay early in life, to fear damnation. With his family moving to Manchester, he grew fond of city life during his teenage years. A talented actor, Silver studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and went on to perform in London’s famed West End as well as on Broadway. His credits include productions at Shakespeare’s Globe and Donmar Warehouse. In Wolf Hall/Bring Up the Bodies, the Royal Shakespeare Company’s adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s Booker Prize winners, he played the protégé of Thomas Cromwell in 2014. He also appeared opposite Nicole Kidman in the DNA-centered Photograph 51 at the Noël Coward Theatre in 2015. In a British Theatre review of Wolf Hall/Bring Up the Bodies, Stephen Collins affirmed that Silver “has a winning, cool and observant presence and he is, in equals parts, steel and sympathy.”

Pivoting away from the theater, Silver trained as a mental health nurse. About his motivation for helping people work through mental-health challenges and crises, he confided to Marcus Wratten of the Pink News, “I struggled with my mental health throughout my life. I was in active addiction, alcohol and drugs.” The acting industry, Silver realized, was a prime source of his anxiety and psychic imbalance. While changing careers, he coincidentally began devoting his creative energy to writing. Among problems that he perceived and wanted to discuss concerning mental-health professionals’ treatment of LGBQT+ youth were knee-jerk diagnoses of “emotionally unstable personality disorder” (EUPD); reductive, blanket categorizations of people who are struggling; and a lack of funds for personal therapy. This Is Queerly contributor Rob Gillett praised Silver as “an author who consistently challenges readers to examine uncomfortable truths about our society.”

Taking inspiration from teens at the in-patient ward where he worked, Silver made his young-adult debut with HappyHead. At seventeen years old, British teen Sebastian Seaton is anxious, a victim of bullies, stuck in the closet, and desperate for change. Getting selected for the HappyHead Project, which will bring 100 seventeen-year-olds to the great outdoors in Scotland in hopes of helping cure the epidemic of unhappiness, delights Seb’s family and seems like cause for optimism. But being isolated from everyone he knows and left phoneless for two weeks hardly excites Seb, and the whole affair seems suspicious to him. Once he arrives, peer pressure, competitiveness, and sinister motives add up to a nerve-wracking experience—one Seb would rather escape in the company of Finn, the boy he falls for.

A Kirkus Reviews writer appreciated how Silver’s debut “addresses relevant, very real questions about life in the digital age,” including the meaning of happiness itself. The reviewer concluded that HappyHead builds on its “intriguing premise” to prove “surprisingly dark and twisty: a solid, character-driven dystopian thriller.”

Cinching the “HappyHead” duology is the follow-up novel, Dead Happy. Achieving a top-ten rating at HappyHead proved Seb’s saving grace, allowing him to be shuttled to the island of Elmhallow for the project’s culminating phase. He has tragically lost touch with Finn, but signs suggest his object of affection may be near at hand—a modest reassurance as Seb must feign attachment to his assigned match, Eleanor, through a series of increasingly perilous trials. As the organizers have nothing less than eugenics and population control in mind, Seb’s very identity is at risk, and Finn may be his only hope.

In School Library Journal, Zach Basler declared that Dead Happy improves upon its predecessor in every way: “The stakes are higher. The challenges are more intense. The characters are more complex.” And Seb and Finn’s romance is “fully fleshed out and integral to the story.” Likewise affirming that Silver’s second “page-turning novel ups the ante on its dystopian world,” a Kirkus Reviews writer hailed Dead Happy as a “thrilling sequel that brings this duology to a satisfying conclusion.”[close new]

BIOCRIT

PERIODICALS

  • Kirkus Reviews, September 15, 2024, review of HappyHead; December 15, 2024, review of Dead Happy.

  • School Library Journal, February, 2025, Zach Basler, review of Dead Happy, p. 69.

ONLINE

  • British Theatre, http://britishtheatre.com/ (July 31, 2014), Stephen Collins, review of Royal Shakespeare Company’s Wolf Hall/Bring Up the Bodies.

  • Children’s Books North Network, https://www.childrensbooksnorth.co.uk/ (July 3, 2025), “Writer Interview: Josh Silver.”

  • Official London Theatre, https://officiallondontheatre.com/ (July 27, 2015), “Silver Completes Nicole Kidman Cast.”

  • Oneworld Publications website, https://oneworld-publications.com/ (December 25, 2023), author profile.

  • Pink News, https://www.thepinknews.com/ (June 21 2024), Marcus Wratten, “Dead Happy Author Josh Silver Is Using Books to Address the LGBTQ+ Mental Health Crisis.”

  • This Is Queerly, https://thisisqueerly.com/ (May 14, 2025), Rob Gillett, “‘It’s a Deliciously Dark Thriller Exploring Themes of Trauma, Grief and Virtual Reality’–Josh Silver on His New Book TraumaLand.”

1. Dead happy LCCN 2024055118 Type of material Book Personal name Silver, Josh, 1989- author. Main title Dead happy / Josh Silver. Edition First American edition. Published/Produced New York : Delacorte Press, [2025] ©2024 Description 404 pages ; 22 cm ISBN 9780593812068 (hardcover) 9780593812099 (paperback) (ebook) CALL NUMBER PZ7.1.S5386 De 2025 Copy 1 Request in Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms 2. HappyHead LCCN 2024943374 Type of material Book Personal name Silver, Josh, 1989- author. Main title HappyHead / Josh Silver. Edition First American edition. Published/Produced New York : Delacorte Press, [2024] ©2023 Description 388 pages ; 22 cm ISBN 9780593812020 (hardcover) 0593812026 (hardcover) CALL NUMBER PZ7.1.S5386 Hap 2024 FT MEADE Copy 1 Request in Jefferson or Adams Building Reading Rooms - STORED OFFSITE
  • Traumaland - 2025 Faber, London, England
  • Wikipedia -

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    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    Josh Silver
    Born 15 September 1989 (age 35)
    Occupation Author
    Alma mater RADA
    Genre Satire,YA Fiction
    Subjects Mental health, LGBTQI+ youth, dystopia
    Josh Silver (born 15 September 1989) is a British author.[1] He is a former actor and mental health nurse.[2] His debut novel, HappyHead, the first in a dystopian[3] duology of young adult fiction books (published by Oneworld Publications in the UK),[4] was shortlisted for the 2024 YA Book Prize,[5] nominated for the 2024 Carnegie Medal for writing[6] and named an Amazon Best YA book of 2023.[7] The sequel, Dead Happy, was published in the UK on 2 May 2024.[8][9] The series published by Delacorte at Penguin Random House in the USA in autumn 2024.[10] The screen rights were acquired by actor Taron Egerton and Range Media Partners in a highly competitive auction[11][12] pre-publication. Silver's third YA book, TraumaLand, a standalone psychological thriller, was published on 8 May 2025 [13]

    Silver's debut adult novel, Fruit Fly, about a wealthy author consumed by writers block who stalks a young gay addict and sex worker in pursuit of a book deal, will publish in 2026.[14]

    Biography
    Silver grew up on a farm in the Lake District and moved to Manchester when he was a teenager.[15] He attended RADA at the age of 18. After appearing on Broadway (the Royal Shakespeare Company's adaptation of the Hilary Mantel books[16] Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies), and in the West End (notably alongside Nicole Kidman in Photograph 51),[17] he later retrained as a mental health nurse and began writing at the same time.

  • The Pink News - https://www.thepinknews.com/2024/06/21/dead-happy-happy-head-author-josh-silver-books-lgbtq-mental-health-crisis/

    Dead Happy author Josh Silver is using books to address the LGBTQ+ mental health crisis
    Jun 21 2024
    Written by Marcus Wratten
    An image featuring author Josh Silver and his books Dead Happy and Happy Head against a yellow and green background.
    Josh Silver’s book series addresses the mental health crisis affecting young LGBTQ+ people. (Supplied/Canva)

    Author Josh Silver didn’t intend to end his debut YA novel HappyHead on a cliffhanger. Then again, he wasn’t sure anyone would read the book at all, let alone be interested enough to care.

    But they did. The book was nominated for a 2024 Carnegie Medal, and included on Amazon’s 2023 list of best YA books. Rocketman star Taron Egerton has acquired the rights to bring the story to the screen.

    The cliffhanger, then, didn’t go down too well. “Some people got really mad at me. The DMs were pretty hectic at one point,” Silver tells PinkNews.

    After a year-long wait, fans now have the second book in the series, Dead Happy. “It would have been sad if the book hadn’t sold, they would have just ended the series there. That would have been quite difficult for me,” Silver says. “Thankfully, I got to finish it.”

    HappyHead, and its sequel, follow Seb, a dejected gay teenager who is living through an “epidemic of unhappiness”. He’s offered a place at a retreat which claims it can fix the happiness crisis. Part of the programme involves engaging in increasingly brutal challenges.

    Despite Seb falling for Finn, another queer teen on the retreat, “the Happier Programme is asking him to be in a heteronormative relationship”, Silver goes on to say.

    “Seb has been a people-pleaser his whole life and feels the notion of happiness is synonymous with the idea of success.

    “It’s about Seb’s growth into fighting against the system that wants him to be a certain way, accepting who he is, and being able to stand up for other people who are part of a community.”

    https://www.instagram.com/p/C6rEAYcik7i/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR1dc4J3NXLVItim2P9AY_jW8diNivJJCFNj9FNg_5gKvlqCzgkYPaYx8nw_aem_AWA-BRwsNJ9nW_9WCgpSuO14qbC6i2eRDD-S7A3f_qOc7Ui4-0QqKWIWzzL_4b8DgRNn86lCMXF8y1DZUPS-yeLA&img_index=1
    The character is a reflection of Silver’s younger self. “I struggled with my mental health throughout my life,” he reveals. “I was in active addiction, alcohol and drugs.”

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    He trained at London’s prestigious RADA drama school before starring in big productions on Broadway and in the West End, including alongside Nicole Kidman in Photograph 51. After several years, he realised the acting industry was fuelling his mental health struggle. And walked away.

    “The anger that fuels [Seb]… I identify with,” Silver says. “He gets to breaking point, where he realises: ‘I can’t do this any more. I can’t live like this’. He makes a choice to stand against it.”

    During the pandemic, Silver retrained as a mental health nurse, working with teens on an in-patient ward. It was there that the idea for HappyHead really started to take shape. He views the book series as a “dystopian version” of where he fears the UK is headed in terms of the way LGBTQ+ young people and their mental health are treated.

    “I just write from what makes me angry,” he says. “I was really worried and scared about what’s going on in the mental health system.”

    There is a lot that makes the author angry about the way his country deals with anyone living with mental health issues. He laments how, from what he’s seen, young people are often “lumped” together under the diagnosis of emotionally unstable personality disorder (EUPD) – then dismissed as “attention-seeking” when they try to seek support.

    He is frustrated by the lack of funds available for person-focused therapy on wards, and the fact that mental-health professionals are “led to blanket diagnose” and “blanket categorise” people who are struggling. “Terrible things are normalised,” he says.

    While he no longer works as a nurse full time – he occasionally works shifts – he still hears from former colleagues who are “absolutely terrified of the way the system works, and often feel stuck, banging their head against the wall”.

    Among the fan reviews for HappyHead are some written by mental healthcare professionals who recognise their own tough working environments. “I can tell you that parts of it were so realistic, I felt it in my bones,” reads one comment.

    Silver believes that a culture of fear in the industry prevents those professionals voicing their concerns. “When you’re working in the system, it’s very hard to speak out about the stuff because you don’t want to rock the boat,” he says.

    He has a third book coming out next year, separate from the HappyHead world, which will explore the detrimental impact that social media is having on young people’s mental health.

    “With social media, nowadays, mental health has become a bit of an accessory. It can become monetised. In some extreme cases, people use it to sell products. I find it very scary,” he bristles.

    Social media users have turned serious issues – such as suicidal ideation and depression – into topics they can make fun of. The new book will be about how “trauma can be a commodity now”.

    The ever-growing mental health crisis among young people has come from somewhere other than social media, though. In 2017, an average of one in 10 teens experienced symptoms of poor mental health. By 2022, this was one in four.

    “We’ve got the government who I am very angry about. I’m not shy in saying that,” Silver says sternly. “They’re limiting the support for these teenagers who need help.”

    Author Josh Silver in a white t-shirt with his arms folded.
    Josh Silver’s new book will delve into the effects social media has on mental health. (Supplied)
    Silver sees the Conservatives as having a particularly damning impact on young LGBTQ+ people, like Seb in HappyHead, who are watching their rights and identities being mocked and toyed with for political gain. While he was on the ward, numerous queer teens were admitted.

    “That’s because of the rhetoric and language being spouted by the government, and that comes from a patriarchal, heteronormative ideal that they want to uphold. That filters down,” he says.

    LGBTQ+ people, particularly trans and non-binary individuals, are statistically more likely to experience severe mental health issues than their straight peers.

    It’s transgender and non-binary people who have largely borne the brunt of the politically curated culture wars, across party lines.

    “I get so angry about the way we are being drip-fed fear around this demographic of people who are just trying to be themselves. I wanted to write this book to say it’s dangerous.

    “Mental health is so political. Being gay is so political. I feel they’re linked,” the author adds.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/C6gr2AoMwWD/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR1r27v1pO7Uzk6I6QSC3A80J9S7JzrYjgG3_KqeGboKBuc_zWm-6Qy7Ux4_aem_AWB9hQQM8xhy0JKyMIj06me-DriMYIsB7DshRx6UDvKkQEAsTrKfMpIlqKgte4ciBOHUYRQPn6kPPpCcEO4CyXsR&img_index=1
    Growing up gay in rural Cumbria, the writer felt that intently. He was born into an “incredibly religious” home and spent his childhood fearing he would “burn in hell” because of his sexuality.

    Through HappyHead, he’s been able to spend time in schools, and has seen how the world has changed since his time in the education system. The children of today are largely “clued up” when it comes to LGBTQ+ identities, but work remains to be done.

    “There are still undertones of fear around LGBTQ+ people. I always say to the kids when I get in front of them that I’m gay, and I always feel a slight tension,” Silver admits.

    At one school, he dealt with homophobic gestures from youngsters in the front row of his talk. But it was the teachers’ response that really irked him: there was no response. The headteacher brushed him off when he complained.

    “No one did anything,” he says. “If the teachers don’t have the language or the knowledge of how to interact with homophobia and transphobia, then we’re screwed because nothing is being done.”

    With such powerful messages to share, it’s a blessing that HappyHead and Dead Happy have had the reaction they have. Silver is just pleased the books have been read by their intended audience: young queer people, and young people on mental health wards.

    “I’m glad that people want to pick up the [new] one. That’s really exciting for me,” he says. The second book, in his eyes, is better than the first. “I’m really excited for people to read it. It gets really weird and dark.”

    As so often, art imitates life.

    HappyHead and Dead Happy are available to buy now.

  • Children’s Books North Network Limited - https://www.childrensbooksnorth.co.uk/blog/northern-highlight-josh-silver

    Northern Highlight
    In this week’s Northern Highlight, we interview YA writer Josh Silver from Manchester, who talks about his new book Dead Happy, the sequel to his debut HappyHead.

    Where are you based, and how would you sum up the place in three words?

    I'm based in Manchester. Three words: Fun. Vibrant. Creative.

    If you could be transported to anywhere in the North/ Scotland right now, where would it be?

    Isle of Harris. I’ve never been – it looks amazing. I think there are very few people there which sounds great.

    What is special to you about creating children's / YA books, and what is your favourite part of the process?

    I love going into schools and meeting the readers. Writing the book itself is a long process but one of my favourite bits is the first draft - getting all the excitement down.

    Tell us about your most recent book.

    Dead Happy by Josh Silver
    Published by Oneworld Publications, May 2024

    Dead Happy – the sequel to my debut YA HappyHead which was published last year. It’s a dystopian take on a teen epidemic of unhappiness – the story of Seb and the enigmatic Finn who he falls for.

    What latest children's/ YA book from a Northern/Scottish creative you have enjoyed?

    If my Words had Wings by Danielle Jawando.

    What literary events have you attended or been involved with recently?

    I was part of a brilliant event at Liverpool Waterstones earlier this year, discussing our books and YA fiction with Danielle Jawando and Melissa Welliver. And I'll be heading to Glasgow at the end of this month for the Youth Libraries Group Conference where I'll be on a YA panel.

    What would you like to see from children's / YA publishing in the North/ Scotland?

    Publishers being braver and allowing stories that don't replicate others - to be less derivative and see the excitement of difference and individuality.

    What advice would you give to aspiring publishing professionals in the North/Scotland?

    You don't need to be in London to write a brilliant book. Make a start and see where it leads you.

    You can find Josh on:

    Instagram: smudgecotton

  • This is Queerly - https://thisisqueerly.com/its-a-deliciously-dark-thriller-exploring-themes-of-trauma-grief-and-virtual-reality-josh-silver-on-his-new-book-traumaland/

    “It’s a deliciously dark thriller exploring themes of trauma, grief and virtual reality” – Josh Silver on his new book TraumaLand
    by Rob Gillett | May 14, 2025 | Books, News | 0 comments

    Josh Silver
    I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Josh Silver, the multi-award-winning author of HappyHead and Dead Happy, to discuss his upcoming psychological thriller TraumaLand on The Queerly Breakfast Show.

    When I asked Josh to give us the nutshell version of his new book (without spoilers, of course), he said:

    “TraumaLand revolves around a young man called Eli who has been in a car crash or so he thinks, and he has two months of his memory missing, and he’s in therapy to try and piece together what’s happened,” Josh explained. “He can’t feel anything, any emotions, since the crash, got a scar on his head from where he apparently went through the windshield.”

    What follows is Eli’s desperate journey to feel emotions again – trying “dangerous things to feel fear or immoral things to feel guilt” – which leads him to an underground nightclub called TraumaLand. But this is no ordinary club.

    “In this nightclub, it’s a new way of thrill-seeking, and you pay to go into booths, and you put on an Oculus headset, and you watch a traumatic episode as if you’re the lead character,” Josh revealed. The twist? Eli discovers himself in one of these scenarios, blowing his reality wide open.

    The commodification of pain
    When I asked Josh about the inspiration for TraumaLand, his answer revealed layers of thought that extend far beyond a simple plot device.

    “I wanted to write a book about the commodification of pain and trauma, because I see that on the internet a lot,” he said. “I see people using pain and traumatic stuff to either brand themselves or sell themselves or sell a product.”

    As Josh pointed out, we’re already a society that consumes trauma for entertainment – we love our horror films and TV shows with “horrendous things in them.” TraumaLand just takes this cultural tendency to its logical, dystopian conclusion.

    “I think we like being voyeurs to other people’s trauma,” Josh observed. “There’s a comfort in it, knowing it’s not happening to you.”

    Mental health on the page
    As both an author and a mental health nurse, Josh brings a unique perspective to his writing. Parts of TraumaLand are set on a mental health ward, and Josh was candid about his desire to pull back the curtain on these often-misunderstood spaces.

    “I think people should know what goes on on those wards. They’re not great places and it’s very difficult for young people who are on them,” he told me. “You know, the work that needs to be done isn’t actually within that person… I just feel like that’s one of the biggest things I’ve learned working in the NHS.”

    His passion for mental health reform shone through our entire conversation, though he was quick to add an important clarification: “If you’re a young person listening, you should reach out for help because the system will help you. And it is there. And there are amazing people that will support you.”

    A queer love story at the heart
    It’s not all darkness and trauma, though. At the core of TraumaLand is a queer love story that adds warmth and light to the psychological thriller elements.

    “The feelings that he’s trying to get at the beginning are all sort of painful feelings,” Josh explained. “Because of what’s happened to him, he can’t remember that he had this incredible experience. And that warmth starts to fill him back up as the book goes on.”

    What’s next for Josh Silver?
    Always one step ahead, Josh is already working on his next project – his first adult novel, Fruit Fly, coming in 2026.

    “I wanted to write more about the appropriation of gay pain,” he told me. “So I’ve written a book about an author and she’s trying to write a bestseller… Reddit tells her ‘go gay, go dark, go sad. That sells now.’”

    The result? A story about a woman who ends up “stalking [a gay man] and writing his life as her book.” It sounds like another thought-provoking thriller from an author who consistently challenges readers to examine uncomfortable truths about our society.

    TraumaLand releases May 8th 2025. You can purchase a copy here.

* SILVER, Josh. Dead Happy. 416p. (HappyHead: Bk. 2). Delacorte. Feb. 2025. Tr $19.99. ISBN 9780593812068.

Gr 9 Up--This second and final book in the "HappyHead" duology picks up right where its predecessor left off. After a failed attempt to escape with his love interest, Finn, and a tumultuous voyage on a sinking ship, Seb and the remaining nine HappyHead participants find themselves on the island of Elmhallow. As the next part of their journey to happiness, they must complete trials in order to accumulate bloodstones. The couple that obtains the most will be declared the winner. But what is the prize? And where is Finn? After settling into Elmhallow, Seb starts seeing signs indicating that Finn is nearby. Now not only does Seb need to successfully complete the trials while convincing everyone else he is falling in love with his assigned partner, Eleanor, but he also has to find Finn if they want to have any chance of escaping. Silver wraps up his duology in a way that is both satisfying and contemplative. This book is everything that HappyHead was and more. The stakes are higher. The challenges are more intense. The characters are more complex. And this time around, the romance between Seb and Finn is fully fleshed out and integral to the story. VERDICT Considering this series' fresh take on dystopian fiction with themes of mental health and eugenics, it is a must-have for library collections worthy of its place next to Lois Lowry's The Giver and Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games. --Zach Basler

Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2025 A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
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Basler, Zach. "SILVER, Josh. Dead Happy." School Library Journal, vol. 71, no. 2, Feb. 2025, p. 69. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A836878878/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=1be74bd2. Accessed 9 June 2025.

Silver, Josh DEAD HAPPY Delacorte (Teen None) $19.99 2, 4 ISBN: 9780593812068

HappyHead was anything but a happy place.

Seb's acceptance into the HappyHead program in the first series entry was supposed to be a positive turning point in the life of a struggling teen boy. But after HappyHead was revealed to be only the first phase in a larger scheme to eliminate unhappiness through selective population control, Seb was whisked away, with the other top-rated teens who make up the Ten, to the Scottish island of Elmhallow. Seb was aware that those in charge were hiding sinister motives, but he knew he had no choice but to participate if he was going to make it out alive. Now, beyond staying alive, he also hopes to find Finn, the boy he fell for at HappyHead who wasn't chosen to go to Elmhallow. Seb, who's gay, works with Eleanor, the girl he's been paired with as his perfect match, and they try to prove themselves in a series of increasingly dangerous trials. Elmhallow pushes Seb, who's cued white, and the other members of the Ten, who are racially diverse, to their physical and mental limits--but it also offers their only chance of survival. This page-turning novel ups the ante on its dystopian world. While still centering on themes of mental health and happiness in the digital age, this sequel raises the stakes with explorations of eugenics and just how far people will go to be happy.

A thrilling sequel that brings this duology to a satisfying conclusion. (author's note with resources)(Thriller. 14-18)

Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
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MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Silver, Josh: DEAD HAPPY." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Dec. 2024. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A819570344/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=11eefe4e. Accessed 9 June 2025.

Silver, Josh HAPPYHEAD Delacorte (Teen None) $19.99 10, 22 ISBN: 9780593812020

Being selected for the HappyHead Project seems like the best way forward for struggling teen Sebastian Seaton.

Between anxiety, bullying, and being closeted, Seb has a lot to deal with. So when he's selected to join the HappyHead Project, a brand-new retreat in the Scottish wilderness for struggling teens like him that claims to have the answer for the epidemic of teenage unhappiness, his family is ecstatic. But Seb has a bad feeling about HappyHead--what kind of researcher wants 100 17-year-olds to isolate themselves from their friends, families, and phones for two weeks? Despite his misgivings, Seb decides to participate, trying his best to genuinely focus on self-improvement and make his family proud. Almost immediately, though, something seems off about the place--and things just get weirder from there. Can Seb overcome his fear and discomfort to achieve true happiness, or is there indeed something sinister lurking beneath HappyHead's positive exterior? Silver's debut addresses relevant, very real questions about life in the digital age: Mental health, peer pressure, and the exploration of whathappiness really means are at the core of this novel. Some pacing issues detract from the intriguing premise, and the sudden ending will leave readers hanging until the next series entry. Sebastian and other leads present white; contextual cues point to racial diversity in the rest of the cast.

Surprisingly dark and twisty: a solid, character-driven dystopian thriller weakened by an abrupt ending. (author Q&A)(Thriller. 14-18)

Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
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"Silver, Josh: HAPPYHEAD." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Sept. 2024. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A808343099/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=5b658619. Accessed 9 June 2025.

Basler, Zach. "SILVER, Josh. Dead Happy." School Library Journal, vol. 71, no. 2, Feb. 2025, p. 69. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A836878878/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=1be74bd2. Accessed 9 June 2025. "Silver, Josh: DEAD HAPPY." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Dec. 2024. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A819570344/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=11eefe4e. Accessed 9 June 2025. "Silver, Josh: HAPPYHEAD." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Sept. 2024. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A808343099/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=5b658619. Accessed 9 June 2025.