Villarreal-Moura has tapped into something as resonant as it is recognizable, and in Like Happiness has given us a beautiful work of fiction that dwells in the gray areas between celebrity and fan, victim and victimizer, absolution and blame.
Like Happiness gives readers a lot to chew on, but questions of race, identity, and sexuality are recurring, and though the book’s present is set two years before #MeToo blew up, the story courses with questions of wrong, right, and the complicated and sometimes intoxicating nature of unhealthy power dynamics.
Though Villarreal-Moura’s writing style is a bit buttoned-up, her emotionally astute novel offers a moving perspective on the different kinds of victims abusers leave in their wake. Memorable and incisive, this debut grapples elegantly with the complexity of betrayal.
Accomplished ... Questions of whether and how Mateo groomed Tatum reverberate throughout the subtle and satisfying narrative. This leaves readers with much to chew on.
The dive into Tatum’s growth as she finds and then loses herself continuously – in the hands of the same pattern – is exhausting, but it’s also extremely readable. Part of the reason for this is because, even though there is a man at the centre of Tatum’s story, the story is undoubtedly Tatum’s. She holds the pain and confusing she has endured, but we get to see her move through life alongside it, enjoying art, literature, the city, and other relationships in order to become more herself, slowly but surely. And it’s spectacular.
