Reviews

Wellness by Nathan Hill

srufe's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

morregano's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

This book weaves multiple storylines and thoughts together in a deep and poignant way

juliahl's review against another edition

5.0

It’s hard to pin down exactly what this book is about, but all of the topics are so important. This covers marriage, how our opinions change as we age, childhood trauma, the impact of technology on our lives, how science affects us all, identity, and grief. This book made me laugh and cry and reflect. I read this book slowly, mostly because of the Spotify audiobook hour limits, but I’m glad because it forced me to digest each part before continuing onwards. Each section was very distinct yet connected.

The best way for me to describe it is as a second coming of age: the maturing we do from our early 20s to our 30s. The identity crisis we face as we don’t become the idealistic version of ourselves we envisioned in our teenage and college years and conform to society without much resistance. It’s about the dissatisfaction everyone faces with their life at times and how we can miss the good things in front of us when we are focused on what we don’t have. How we try to blame external factors beyond ourselves, even though sometimes, we are the problem.

I listened to the audiobook of this and I really enjoyed the narrator. I think I would probably blanket recommend this book to any adult reader.

sarahcrayons's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

cassie_smith's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

kjd's review against another edition

4.5

If it was 100 pages shorter it would be perfect 

shaguftap's review against another edition

emotional funny lighthearted reflective relaxing medium-paced

4.5

Despite being over 600 pages I kinda loved this novel about long term marriage, healing, art, parenthood, trauma, social media and wellness. This story follows Elizabeth and Jack, together for 20 years, parents to Toby, who are living in Chicago and have just purchased what they hope is their “forever home.” Elizabeth is a scientist at a health clinic called “Wellness” where she studies the impact of placebos, Jack is a sessional art instructor who makes identical photos of how chemicals react with photo paper. Their marriage is in trouble and this book explore marriage and intercuts the present day narrative with chapters about their youth, their upbringing and how social media commodifies our attention.  This book pairs well with Doppelgänger and I throughly enjoyed it though I did find it long. 

lexbackus's review against another edition

2.0

This book had very interesting points and call outs to modern day society, but it just wasn’t enough to keep me interested. I found I was forcing myself to keep focus, but I most often fell into boredom. Hill’s writing is great, and I see why people do like this one, but it wasn’t for me.

nathaliie's review

emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

enzopilarta's review against another edition

reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Unnecessarily clunky and a belabored read. But deeply human and often compelling.