Happy Never After

‘Faced with the crippling paralysis that comes with anxiety and depression, Jill Stark doesn’t completely crumple. Instead, she does what a good journalist does: looks it directly in the face in order to explain, investigate, and reveal. Anyone who reads this book who lives with anxiety will be a beneficiary of its courage and clarity.’

-- Benjamin Law, author of Gaysia and The Family Law

‘By looking back on her childhood, interviewing experts and amassing anecdotal data, Stark expertly links her lifelong struggle with anxiety with a collective social malaise that is exacerbated by our constant connectivity, underfunded mental healthcare systems and the pervasive ‘happiness myth’ … The book’s resounding takeaway that there are multiple ‘happy-in-betweens’ instead of one ‘happy-ever-after’ is an uplifting and liberating one.’

* Books+Publishing *

‘This is a book we need. Highly, highly recommended. Puts a deft finger on many things that I guarantee have been quietly troubling you for a while. A book for our times.’

-- Susan Carland, author of Fighting Hislam: Women, Faith and Sexism

‘A moving, brilliant analysis of our collective pain and how we can heal. We need this book.’

-- Johann Hari, author of Lost Connections

‘A brilliant intersection between searing personal experience and the wisdom of the elders: nothing brings us closer to despair than the relentless pursuit of our own happiness.’

-- Hugh MacKay, author of The Good Life

‘Extraordinary … Stark address[es] this vexed question of what effect our over-stimulated, almost constantly wired brains are having on our sense of wellbeing.’

* The Age *
‘Exploratory and explanatory.’ -- Miriam Cosic * The Saturday Age *

‘With the same keen eye evident in her previous book, Happy Never After is full of far-reaching and astoundingly thorough research … this is a must-read for anyone who has either struggled with mental health themselves or knows someone who has — and according to Stark, that’s most of us.’

* Readings *

‘Her personal experience with anxiety gives readers an insight into why we should hit the brakes on our quest for happiness.’

* Mercury