“The most depressing book about happiness you’ll ever read” - Me, at book club.

CW: disordered eating

In Tell the Machine Goodnight, a company called Apricity (defined as “the feeling of sun on one's skin in the winter”) has invented a machine that can tell you what will make you happy with just a cheek swab. Pearl operates an Apricity machine, and through her, and a collection of people connected to her, we see the impact that Apricity has on their world.

There were so many interesting perspectives. Pearl makes detailed models of animals at the suggestion of Apricity but doesn’t seem so happy as her son struggles with an eating disorder. He refuses to get his results, and Pearl can’t comprehend why he seems so deeply unhappy but still refuses to seek happiness. The book is a novel but almost feels like a collection of short stories, as we get chapters of Pearl, but also a horror movie starlet, Pearl’s husband and new partner, and a friend of her son’s, who all interact with the Apricity machine in unique ways. My personal favourite was her husband’s story. As an artist, he has a collection of performance art called “Midas”, where he takes people’s Apricity results to a perverse extreme.  

I hadn’t read this book before recommending it to my book club, but we all liked Klara and the Sun, and the blurb made it seem similar. I wouldn’t say it is, but it might touch on similar topics of AI and technological advancements. It's a very dark book, and I worried nobody would like it. But generally, people liked it, and it prompted a very interesting discussion about happiness and technology. 

Overall, I liked Tell the Machine Goodnight, but it was jarring, dark, and troublesome at points. It is not Klara and the Sun, and its not a light read. But if you like speculative fiction with an interesting dose of philosophy, it might be the book for you.

There are books whose summaries manage to accurately summarize the events of the story, yet somehow not be representative of the story at all. This story is about Pearl and Rhett but the other character burn just as brightly, are just as deeply flawed, and pull the reader in just as close.

Val is a particular favorite of mine in the complexity of her characterization. I adore how Rhett is characterized as well, especially in the divergence in how he views himself and treats his loved ones. His need for control and purity expresses through severely disorder eating is so painfully real. It's hard to see Pearl expect the worst from her son, but getting to see her through the lens of something other than mother clarifies her character and the choices she makes in interesting ways.

Reads as a cross-section of a movie you missed the start of and walked out before the ending. No discernible plot. Characters are interesting to observe.

This was a really interesting book. I loved that it made me think about happiness in more depth. What it means, why and how we want it, and if we ever really have it--at least in the long-term. It definitely got dark at times and left me wanting to read something in the YA genre as a sort of palate cleanser. Again, it wasn't bad, just a little dark. Definitely check content warnings.