This book was a little hard for me to get into. There are multiple characters, all looking for some sort of happiness, and as long as the focus stayed with Pearl or Rhett, her son, I was focussed on the narrative. As soon as the author took me inside some of the supporting characters' lives, my interest diminished. What was clear throughout the story was everyone was searching for something, a recipe, a process, anything, to give their lives meaning and happiness. The use of a little gadget to provide, like a cookie's fortune, a simple directive or formula for happiness was an interesting story device; I liked how the author gave us both the effect of the directives on people's lives, while also showing us how the backend algorithms were suspect and prone to manipulation by the corporation that had developed the machine.

I enjoyed this book for so many reasons: the characters, the concept, the writing. My complaint is with how it ended: abruptly, with several unanswered questions and with plot lines that led to absolutely nowhere.

I object to this being classified as science fiction. I get that there's a science-y fictional device in it, but that isn't what the story is about. It's not even a story. It's a series of vignettes centering around the device and one could argue, to a vague degree, around one person.

If you like the kind of book that basically provides a series of short stories about tangentially related characters, then you'll enjoy this book. It was interesting, clever, and quite well written.

However, I don't like these kind of books, and I feel like I was tricked into reading it because it was classified as science fiction. It's not. It's just plain old, make you think about your life, well written, fiction...and that's not what I like to read.

Rhett's story is 4*. Elliott is a creep. The rest of the book is weird and never comes together and doesn't take advantage of the possibilities of the scifi machine of the future premise.

not really what i was expecting and didn't grab me in any way. i liked the concept, but i felt like it didn't go anywhere.

Interesting concept. I would have liked the focus to have been on fewer characters.

I read this book in one day because I found it so compelling and well-written. I thought it was all so clever. I loved the different vignettes that all tied together. This somewhat "dystopian" future is not so very different from our present and the author captures our expectations for a quick fix from technology and the realities that an app or a list or a diet, etc. won't fix our problems. It was sweet and funny and poignant. I look forward to reading more by her.