I liked this somewhat futuristic story, except the random-ish asides in the first person, which I found a little confusing. I wanted a few more things to develop or be revealed (not just to the reader but to the other characters).

okay so i realized halfway through this book that i have the vaguest recollection of reading this before?? like maybe five years ago i downloaded the ebook and read it in one distracted sitting bc i had completely forgotten i had read it which is maybe a sign of how much it stuck in my brain.

but! i quite enjoyed this book! i loved the writing style and found it very immersive. i kind of wish it had explored a bit more what this technology looks like on a societal level-- the book was very person-forward, which was also interesting and made me care about the characters a lot but since it was such a quick read i think there could've been room to explore some other cool themes. but overall i recommend this book even though apparently i forgot that i had already read it!

After I proselytized The Epiphany Machine, I was recommended this. And I can see why: Tell the Machine Goodnight is also a science-fiction/alternate reality take on a life coach appearing in form of a machine. While the Epiphany machine cruelly tattooed a truth into the bearer's arm, Ms. Williams's Apricity machine prints out items that will make the cotton-swabbed recipient happy. The same idea applies: there really isn't much of a context for the recipient, so when Apricity tells the recipient to "eat more clementines", who knows what the limits of that recommendation is, and how it will eventually make the person happy.
Tell the Machine Goodnight has its characters wander through the story, dream like, trying to make sense of the world and no matter what the machine actually tells them (or is it the machine or someone manipulating it?), they still have their own interpretations: Pearl, an Apricity employee, tries to figure out what will make her son happy, and can only imagine that it's something cruel because Apricity keeps on censoring one recommendation. So she subtly gets her son to kill little animals (it escalates quickly from spiders), all the while her obsession with this interpretation makes her miss what is truly and effectively making her son happy. Or is it the animals after all? No matter how civilized and advanced, humans still love to default to magical thinking and superstition, making the machine that they invented themselves all but a new god to appease when they're lonely and scared.

A strange book, in the TV show Black Mirror sort of way, but ultimately it’s about love. Love of self, of family, of spouse and above all of children. I found the book to be extremely sad.

I loved the first couple pages, and had great expectations. That were trounced repeatedly as I slogged through the rest.

But I finished it. So three stars.