Three’s a Crowd

A fraught destination wedding brings together a trio of struggling friends in Leanne Toshiko Simpson’s genre-bending debut. This deeply felt story, set in an upscale Turks and Caicos resort and the suburbs of Toronto, masquerades as a lighthearted romantic comedy, even as it probes intimate, personal strife. With its perfectly deflective title, Never Been Better captures how treacherous it can be to confess to strong emotions.

The novel opens with the obstinate yet compelling narrator, Dee Foster, receiving a wedding invitation from her friends Matt and Misa, whom she met at a psych ward. The three bonded while undergoing group treatment for bipolar disorder, but their friendship became complicated when Matt and Misa got together. The atmosphere of the hospital, Dee explains, made desire inevitable: “No one here wanted to touch us, but a few of us definitely wanted to touch each other.”

Months after her discharge, Dee has not revealed that she...