I Want You to Be Happy

by Jem Calder

A tender, witty, and sharp debut novel about the passions and peculiarities of modern love, by “an extraordinarily gifted writer” (Sally Rooney).

Chuck and Joey meet in a bar. He’s in his mid-thirties; she’s twelve years younger. He long ago abandoned his ambition of being a novelist and works as a copywriter at a big ad agency. "Lead copywriter," he corrects himself. Joey is living paycheck to paycheck on her barista wages and privately dreams of making it as a poet. They go back to Chuck’s luxury flat—a world away from Joey’s cramped house-share, the crumbs in her bed. Soon, Joey is imagining a future between them and Chuck is moving on from a mistake in his recent past. Amazing, how meeting a new person can make you feel so new.

Funny, excruciating, and true, Jem Calder's I Want You to Be Happy is a sharp-eyed tale of two people searching for meaning and connection in modern times, missing the mark maybe, but still trying.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Romance, Literary Fiction, Audiobook, Book Club, Novels

266 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 21, 2026

Reviews

[Ross]

really really good stuff. chuck you insufferable piece of shit

[Lauren]

He’s called Chuck because you want to Chuck him out of a window

[emma]

sally rooney says to read it, i read it.

https://emmareadstoomuch.substack.com...

absolute jail for at least one of our protagonists, which is a compliment.

no one else will ever nail the rooney trifecta—believable, unlikable, lovable characters; lush writing; earnest and yet non-cringey criticisms of our late-stage capitalist age—but this had traces of all three, which is far more than most.

this was so hyper-realistic as to function like a horror movie for anyone who has ever dated in the era of apps. a look inside the mind of this man, chuck, going through a mid-thirties mid-life crisis that prompts him to end his engagement and start judgmentally dating a 23-year-old barista, is harrowing. which feels accurate to me.

it's made up for by getting to know joey, the barista in question, whose quiet hopefulness and refusal to be downtrodden while being downtrodden were both relatable and aspirational.

bottom line: i enjoyed this immensely.

(thanks to the publisher for the e-arc)

[Kate Rob]

To be inside a man’s mind is a tedious thing. May Joey find happiness far far far away from Chuck.

[whatzoreads]

This is the ultimate depresso London situationship from spiralling hell story, and it’s a delight.

Terminally online, emotionally bankrupt, everyone optimising their lives while actively deteriorating, you should avoid if you think you’re above this for even a second.

Chuck, 35, a “lead” copywriter (he will absolutely tell you this many times) functioning alcoholic, recently dumped, is operating at a sustained level of twat that feels almost athletic.

Joey, 23, sweet, skint, stuck in a flatshare, quietly writing poetry and mistaking Chuck’s hollow little lifestyle for stability and adulthood, and I shudder as I say “something aspirational”.

This is vibes and red flags.

And the age gap, it's not even about age, it's about digital operating systems. Chuck texts like corporate email. Capital letters and punctuation. Joey texts like a human being. Fundamentally, they’re an incompatible species. The texting in this book is VIOLENT. The drafting. The deleting. The timestamp analysis. The if I reply now will I look desperate, disinterested, the absolute cringe spiral. I felt personally attacked. Calder has clearly watched and decided to ruin all of us. Also, this book gets that addiction isn’t just substances anymore. It’s loops. Notifications. Micro-validations. The constant hum of needing to feel something, anything, even if it’s it just a blue tick.

Oh, and the romance? Be serious. This is not love. This is two people almost trying cosplay intimacy. The sex scenes are forensically embarrassing. You will want to evacuate your own body. I feel like they're both obsessed with appearing cultured, interesting, and intellectual while rotting in real time with screens and bad decisions. It's self-awareness as an aesthetic. Depth as performance. Everyone is curating, no one is connecting.

The dual POV is savage. You watch them misunderstand each other and there is nothing you can do to stop it. Bleak, sometimes funny, emotionally eviscerating in a “oh god is this how I come across” sometimes way. Read this if you want to feel slightly exposed and ashamed of your own texting habits but if you are not a fan of Normal People you need to stay away from this.

I loved this almost spiritually humiliating read. Honestly, I just want them to be happy (but mostly, Joey).

Thank you to NetGalley and Faber for allowing me to read an advance copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.

[mazzle p]

engulfed it but also chuck is maybe the worst man in the world like did anyone else find one likeable trait

[leah]

a love story for the digital age or a cautionary tale - maybe both?

really enjoyed this! such a sharp, poignant examination of modern relationships and loneliness. will write a full review soon.

[Mennnnnnat.reads]

felt like i was stuck in this situationship with them

[Ness]

idk why Goodreads has this as unpublished bcos it’s very unfortunately published.
1. Joey should have bludgeoned Chuck to death
2. What stupid name is chuck
3. I hate chuck
4. If you’re going to have a bit about how chuck writes flat female characters, you can’t also be writing the main girls as devoid of really any growth or inner life
5. I think this is a cynical and boring take on relationships
6. I think is a cynical, boring, tired and incorrect take on London
7. Joey should have stabbed chuck repeatedly

[Rachel Louise Atkin]

Not as amazing and outstanding as everyone is saying it is, but it's good. I can see why it's getting compared to Sally Rooney but also I think Rooney often has more to say than this does. It's about a woman in her early-twenties who gets into a situationship with an emotionally immature manchild in his late-thirties. You will spend the whole novel telling her to dump him and that's it, but it is a captivating and entertaining read and the characters grow on you.

[Caitlin Jones]

Guys this was not as revolutionary as people are saying it is. It’s another book about a man who needs help, doesn’t get it and puts all of his problem on what ever woman he’s with.

[Sian]

I don’t feel like I was reading the same book as the reviews as I found this depiction incredibly sad of 2 people living mediocre unhappy lives where they felt trapped. I enjoyed their coming together and the mismatch of their feelings but the unlikeable character of Chuck did jar my enjoyment of the book overall.

[Emma Marsden]

Chuck is insufferable,
Joey isn’t thrashed out as a character, naive and young.

It’s unlikeable character, stupid decisions and no plot at all. If that’s your kinda story you may well love this.
I liken it to conversations with friends by Sally Rooney (I know most people love that book, I did not). So perhaps this style of writing just isn’t for me.

I can generally get behind unlikeable characters if there’s something more to the story or other characters but this just fell flat for me.

This is a book about two miserable people who hate their lives having a very awkward relationship… I’m yet to see the real point of the book to be honest.

ARC copy supplied by Net Galley.

[dylan ward]

man fuck chuck

[erin]

unbelievably dull

[Andi G]

I consider this book a horror story because I had to sit and read through the thoughts of a straight man.

Jem Calder please never make us do that again.

[Boris]

I saw this novel everywhere in London when I was there three days ago, so I just had to buy it. I’m glad I did.

Jem Calder, what a writer. I rarely come across a contemporary romance that feels this well observed and sharply written. Calder captures relationships with remarkable precision, but what impressed me most was the attention to the tiny details that shape the modern millenial’s life - the calculations, the compromises, the quiet anxieties that often go unspoken.

It’s the kind of book that feels deeply specific to a generation, in ways that might be difficult to fully grasp if you’re much older or younger. Intelligent, funny, and painfully accurate, this was a standout read for me. I will definitely read whatever Calder has got cooking next.

ps: This book reminded me of Good material by Dolly Alderton, who is also very good at writing about modern romance. Interesting thing is that in Dolly's book I sided with the male character, while in Calder's book I sided with the female. So yes, Chuck was an asshole

[Esmé]

didn’t get the hype! just gave me anxiety and lose faith in men watching him self destruct and double back, even though that was the moral of the story

the east london trendiness is a bit overdone although it was funny to recognise the non descript settings as broadway market and ldn fields. find men going through a break up a difficult trope to get through, no sympathy from me sorry x

[Niamh Horn]

Loved loved loved
Gave me war flash backs with my ex tho hence the 4*s

[peyton!!]

This was genuinely one of the worst books I’ve ever read and I wish there was a better way to express that than giving it a single star. I wish I could remember all the reasons that I hated it, but alas I will just have to hit the highlights here:

1) I don’t have to like your characters (and frankly a lot of my favourite books have characters I dislike greatly), but I do need to care about them, and I just didn’t care about these two.

2) Chuck is a certifiable asshole and it pisses me off that he got a happier ending than Joey. Not even a happier ending actually, it pisses me off that he GOT an ending at all and she didn’t. I’m a woman in my twenties too and I would like to know that life isn’t all bowls of shit and dating men who hate your guts???

3) none of these characters are fleshed out or possess any depth in any way. They are shallow, selfish, and stupid, and frankly I didn’t give a crap about what happened to any of them. Also, not once did I ever feel there was any kind of spark between them. Again, I don’t have to like them but I do need to care about them, and I was just not invested in their “love story” because I didn’t feel or see any chemistry at all!! Why the hell were they even together!!!

4) if you’re writing what is being marketed as a “love story” of some kind, I feel like it’s fair for me to reasonably expect the sex scenes to have some kind of intimacy. But when your (sad and depressing) masturbation scenes have more intimacy and depth than your actual sex scenes, I think there’s a problem here. Also, less masturbation scenes please. Chuck is a 35 year old man there is no reason for every scene to start AND end with him jacking off in his living room.

5) this books is so unbelievably dull. The prose is listless and wandering, the plot lacks any kind of imagination or structure, there’s no clear ending of any kind for anyone or even a HINT of what could be an ending for them in the future, and frankly I don’t like books that take a completely nihilistic stance!!! Like maybe life ISN’T always out to get you and full of terrible terrible things all day every day for the rest of your life!!! I’m not saying every story has to have a happy ending but we have to keep up some kind of hope in humanity or else what do we even have anymore!!!!

Anyways. Off my soapbox now. I hate seeing people comparing this book to Sally Rooney because it could NEVER be her. Doesn’t even come close not even in the same UNIVERSE. Don’t piss me off.

[Rosie Cook]

I would love to be happy after this novel

[Bonnie G.]

I loved this book. Thanks to Derek for recommending this painfully intimate book about two people at different moments of crisis who drown their worries and disillusionment in drink and one another. Joey is a couple years out of college, getting by in London as a barista. Her friends are moving on to careers and nice apartments, but all she can see is service work and a grotty apartment share. She meets Chuck, who has realized he is working a job he doesn't like to support a lifestyle he doesn't like. He proceeds to blow off his long-term relationship and malinger at his copywriting job, deciding (clearly wrongly) that there is a great novelist buried within him. The journey is both familiar (at least to me) and surprising and always very real. The writing is fantastic; smart and stripped down to its purest state. Great stuff that pulled me out of a minor reading slump. I listened to the audio, and the readers, Christopher Bonwell and Gemma Lawrence, were fantastic.

[Mria]

باید به آنیتا گوش می‌دادم و نمی‌خوندم.

[Catherine]

I'm upset because it's compared to Sally Rooney and maybe I was naive to think that even with her praise, this would come anywhere close to her writing.

I can see the parallels for sure, but I never quite got attached to these characters like I did to Rooney's and for me, characters are the most important thing. Chuck was insufferable and I know he's supposed to be; sometimes I really enjoy being in the insufferable person's mind. Here, I did not. These two characters were really just going around in circles and it was hard to remain into it, especially when Chuck wasn't over his ex, or at least his ego wasn't, and he was not a great guy overall. At least Rooney's male characters have dialoge that my heart could yearn over.. that was not the case with this MMC. It was sad and frustrating but not the kind I enjoy unfortunately 😅

[Louise Allsop]

I just feel like some stories don’t need to be told - I didn’t gain anything at all from this. No emotional ties to characters etc, nothing really happened, and in that way it was an easy read. Surprised it had all the accolades and reviews.

Okay this maybe the experiences of some and I’m sorry about that.

Overall, I feel unbothered about the whole book.

[Eve]

2.5 stars

Spent the entire time reading this hoping Chuck would drop dead x

[Cat Grogan]

it’s been a long time since a piece of fiction made me feel as bleak as this. i had kind of learned how to separate the emotions i feel when reading from the emotions i carry in my body after the reading is done, but this broke through those imposed barriers. just so close to the bone on the dire experience of dating men. being privy to chuck’s innermost thoughts as he fucks around with joey gave me insights into the male psyche i probably would have been happier without. fair play to jem caldwell — fella knows how to write.

[Noura]

If you really want me to be happy, never make me read this again.

Everything I learned about Chuck was against my will. What a tedious, insufferable thing it is to be inside a man’s head. Even now, having survived the slow torture of sitting through his thoughts, observations, anxieties and endless indecision, I’m still failing to locate the reason this story needed to be told in the first place.

The only aspect I found remotely interesting was Chuck’s job as a copywriter at a marketing agency; as someone who works in the same world, those sections were very recognizable and relatable to me. But if there was anything profound beyond the capitalist commentary or the characters’ mundane observations and emotional non-events, I didn’t see it, nor do I particularly want it.

[Kalynka Chiang]

there comes a time in every young woman’s life when a 30-somehting year old loser will try to date you and it’s very important you know not to waste your time with them so if this book can shine a light on that epidemic so be it

[Claire]

Throw your phones into the sea. Love is embarrassing and BLEAK.