I wanted to tell the story of a woman who sometimes wasn’t even the main character of her own life. I think it’s an idea that might resonate with other women of color: We live in a society that values men over women, children over mothers, and white people over people of color. Through fiction, I wanted to explore how that sort of hierarchy devalues women of color and how that shapes a life.
― Ursula Villarreal-Moura, Interview
What booksellers are saying about Like Happiness
- A searing debut that deftly explores the effects of an unhealthy relationship between a predatory male writer and a young woman on the cusp of adulthood – I couldn’t stop reading it! The characters in this story are all too real, and post #MeToo we see Tatum grappling to understand her story and the abuse she suffered from the toxic man she viewed as her superior for far too long.
― Maggie Robe, Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, North Carolina | BUY
- Like Happiness grabbed me from the beginning and didn’t let go. It’s an intimate exploration of power dynamics and the weight of words, but its fine-tuned attention to perspective and devotion is where it shines. Villarreal-Moura’s debut is a quiet stunner.
― Sarah Arnold, Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee | BUY
- Like Happiness is an incisive and blistering coming of age novel that emanates a quiet and methodical rage. Through Tatum, Ursula Villarreal-Moura explores power imbalance, hero worship, and emotional exploitation in a way that keeps the pages turning, while also grappling deftly with sexuality and race. A searing portrait of a young woman trying to understand herself and the older man who irrefutably tangles her identity with his.
― Gaby Iori, Epilogue Books Chocolate Brews in Chapel Hill, North Carolina | BUY
About Ursula Villarreal-Moura
Ursula Villarreal-Moura was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. She is the author of Math for the Self-Crippling, a flash fiction collection. Like Happiness is her first novel.
