Today I am more happy than not (eh? eeehhhhh?) to present Adam Silvera, author More Happy Than Not, with the memory he’d most like to forget.
SPOILERS AHEAD FOR ANY SAD SOUL THAT HASN’T READ HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE YET AND DOESN’T WANT TO BE SPOILED LIKE I WAS!!!!
If I could forget something in my life through the use of More Happy Than Not’s Leteo procedure—which is reserved for drastic measures, not the triviality I’m about to share with you—it would be when my online friend spoiled Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince for me.
I believe my friend’s username was something like Deadly Orange so let’s roll with that. I hopped on my instant messenger the morning Half-Blood Prince published—it was summer, I wasn’t skipping school—and told my so-called friend Deadly Orange I was going out soon to get my copy of the book. He then proceeded to tell me that the book was “okay” and how Snape is the Half-Blood Prince and he kills Dumbledore. I thought he was joking because that sounds ludicrous, right? Snape killing Dumbledore? YEAH RIGHT. Except Deadly Orange than told me about DumbledoreIsNotDead.com which is a site that was created overnight by Super Fans that got the book at midnight, stayed up reading it, and launched into a series of theories on how Dumbledore couldn’t possibly be dead. Like, World, I was definitely sleeping when all this productivity happened.
I looked at the website and yup, Snape had indeed killed Dumbledore. I “yelled” at Deadly Orange (in CAPS LOCK, basically) and asked why he spoiled it. He said he was sorry. But “Sorry!” doesn’t erase memories of spoilers! So yeah, I read the book praying everything was some extremely elaborate ruse—the spoiler, the website—but nope, Snape definitely shot Dumbledore with a Killing Curse square in the chest and sent homeboy falling out of the tower.
I learned my lesson with Deathly Hallows and stayed off the internet until I was done. Ten minutes after I finished I MAYBE spoiled Harry’s victory over Voldemort but that was totally an accident and a long story that needs to be Leteo’d for another time.
[about-author]
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The Leteo Institute’s revolutionary memory-relief procedure seems too good to be true to Aaron Soto — miracle cure-alls don’t tend to pop up in the Bronx projects. But Aaron can’t forget how he’s grown up poor or how his friends aren’t always there for him. Like after his father committed suicide in their one bedroom apartment. Aaron has the support of his patient girlfriend, if not necessarily his distant brother and overworked mother, but it’s not enough.
Then Thomas shows up. He has a sweet movie-watching setup on his roof, and he doesn’t mind Aaron’s obsession with a popular fantasy series. There are nicknames, inside jokes. Most importantly, Thomas doesn’t mind talking about Aaron’s past. But Aaron’s newfound happiness isn’t welcome on his block. Since he’s can’t stay away from Thomas or suddenly stop being gay, Aaron must turn to Leteo to straighten himself out, even if it means forgetting who he is.
Adam Silvera’s extraordinary debut novel offers a unique confrontation of race, class and sexuality during one charged near-future summer in the Bronx.
Make sure you check out the other stops on the tour!
June 12 – Book Rock Betty
Monthly Bookish Awesomeness: June 2015 | Bookish and Awesome
[…] case of missing fancy suits and why settling on being more happy than not isn’t so bad • On the memory Adam would most like to forget • On exploring nature vs. nurture in regards to homosexuality • On creating his own MFA […]