I really wanted to like this book. The concept was interesting, and the author's writing style is very good. I flew through the first 80 pages in a day, but after that it started to go downhill. The multiple narrators don't make much sense in terms of plot (some show up for one chapter and are barely heard from again), and the plot itself is very unfocused. I'm not even sure I'd say there's a solid conclusion the book builds to as opposed to things just happening. This read much more like an oddly-organized collection of linked short stories than it did a novel. I really wish it had just stuck to the Pearl/Rhett/Elliot storyline (which ended up jumping ahead several years after the issues in that storyline just kind of resolved themselves) as opposed to ending up with the whole Calla Pax arc. It didn't make any sense based on what the beginning of the novel set up. I was really disappointed after how much I enjoyed those first 80 pages that the plot wasn't better focused and organized. It really killed the book for me.

This book was a super easy read. The chapters are split into different short stories revolving around a group of characters. Williams did a great job on intertwining all the characters together, but I can't help but wish for more answers. This novel had a light-hearted Black Mirror feel to it. A future where technology is trying to make us happier? Not destroy us? A wonderful take with characters that felt real but still original!

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book!

This was an interesting read as well as an innovative novel. The way the author carefully describes this futuristic society is entertaining and engaging. I found it really curious how, in many aspects, I also thought that our society would look the way the author portraits it.

Despite that, I found the book somehow incomplete. Throughout the novel I thought the author was building up to some grand finale and to join all the stories together. That didn't happen and, because of my expectations, I was quite disappointed.

The different characters were carefully described and I felt how I got to know them more and more as the novel progressed, even if sometimes they acted in ways I wouldn't have expected.

In conclusion, it was a refreshing read that made me reflect about interesting topics (love, affection, drugs, the future...) from a different perspective.

Happiness may be fleeting and difficult to quantify, but it can be achievable in so many different ways, as dictated by a machine providing personalized plans in Tell the Machine Goodnight by Katie Williams.

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Pearl is an Apricity technician, running tests on the machine for people in order to generate their personalized contentment plans to help them achieve a greater level of happiness in their lives. But just because Pearl is able to provide others with potential ways to increase their happiness doesn't mean that she's actually capable of helping her teenage son Rhett, despite how much she may desire to. Rhett, suffering from an eating disorder and reluctant to confide in his mother, seems to revel in unhappiness, but as this seems to bring him some joy, does that not mean that he's found an alternate way to his own happiness that's not dependent upon a machine prescribing it to him?

An intriguing premise, which creepily doesn't seem too horribly far-fetched, this story easily captured my attention and kept me captivated. As society seems to place an emphasis on ways to quickly improve our lives, this story reflects the (unrealistic) importance we place upon categorizing and measuring our enjoyment of life. Told through multiple perspectives of rather complex characters, including those tangential to Pearl and Rhett, the world and relationships presented is relatively well-explored as it offers a glimpse into how technology both enhances and hinders human contentment. Each perspective shared provides a new layer from which to think about the premise presented and the narrative as a whole; however, I found that introducing the voices of this many characters had a short story feel to them, which prevented the novel, and the two characters who were the primary focus from the novel's synopsis, from being fully realized.

*I received a copy of this book through a Literary Hub giveaway.

I went back and forth as to whether I wanted to give this book a three or four star review. At moments I found it clever in it's insights and character approaches and at other times, I found it lacking. In what I'm not sure but I definitely found myself feeling dispassionate which is an interesting sensation to be left with since the setting is built around a world in which a small machine called an Apricity, can tell you what you need to change in your life in order to increase life satisfaction, i.e. happiness. It's an interesting premise though, sort of like a Black Mirror episode if it were allowed to just follow it's characters as they continue to wander about their lives long after the credits roll.