i would give 5 stars but I'm still figuring out if i like the ending

i don't know why this book was on my list. the first chapter, it didn't seem like my type book at all.
but then i really enjoyed it. the type book i felt could be studied and written about.
the chapters were a little weird. sometimes first person sections and you had to figure out who was talking. lots about art and the book was artistic itself.
the machine would tell you things you could do to be happier. a mom, a son, the ex husb, the new wife, the sons friends, the clients, a movie star.
I think I wanted more answers. I think I wanted to see how all of them came together more. I think I wanted to know more about the asterisk.
but this is the type book where I feel you're supposed to learn more about you and to think

I enjoyed this rumination on technology's impact on our happiness and our obsession with quick fixes for our mental well-being. It felt like an expanded, hopeful episode of Black Mirror.

I liked that the story uses the characters more so than the sci fi tech to explore these themes; while the tech is definitely important to the story, its used more as world building and setting than as a plot device, with all of the page-turnability relying on the complex and fully realized characters.

There are multiple points of view, and some worked better than others -- particularly, any that the author wrote in the first person.; some of the third person POVs paled in comparison.

I feel like it ended somewhat abruptly, and Im not entirely sure what the final message was or what conclusion I was supposed to arrive at. Some of the disparate story lines didnt fully come together for me in the end. It kind of felt more like a philosophical exercise at times than a novel, but I could also just have been missing the point or expecting more plot mechanics.

Overall enjoyed it, but not one of my top sci fi recs.

The book had so much promise - I was hooked and really liked what I was reading all through the first half. It was easily a 4-5 star rating. Fresh and interesting! AAANNNNDDD then I have no idea what happened; the author abruptly ended story threads and kind of hobbled together the close of the book where I'd give it a 1. Super unsatisfying. I have to give it a 1 overall even though I really, really liked the first half. The promo description of the book is pretty misleading. I feel disappointed.

This book is good in a sneaky way, and far from what I was expecting based on the cover art which has that kind of "this house is on fire because the machines we built have now gained sentience and are here to subjugate us and strip away all that makes us human" look, but that's not really the vibe. If you enjoy stories where a piece of technology in our not-too-distant future changes the way we as a society live, I think you'll like this. This has that Black Mirror tone to it, just one of the more subdued episodes. The story changes perspectives and narrators between the characters, which keeps things interesting even as the story takes its time to really flesh out. I think I was half expecting some technological, AI apocalypse or something and really it's a character study; a believable future where we have the tech to tell us what will make us happy and yet everyone is so deeply sad. The book is depressing and hopeful at the same time, which is hard to do and something that really meets me where I'm at right now.

Difficult to decide on a rating. I enjoyed the read despite there being no "plot" - just people living their changing lives.

Yawn.

I agree with other reviews—starting out, I was so intrigued and hooked by the story and the main characters. But then it just went on and on, its points already made, and became a bit intolerable the second half.

Well-written, engaging, and just subtly futuristic Tell The Machine Goodnight offers an interesting perspective on where happiness, technology, and relationships intersect.

Tell The Machine Goodnight takes place in the nearish, familiar future. Although there are several upgrades to technology (like a machine that tells you how to be happy and a home system that tells you exactly where everyone is) it isn't hard-line sci that feels like a totally different world. The characters in Tell The Machine Goodnight might not quite live in our world, but they're still struggling with the same things - truth, intimacy, stress, love, and, of course, happiness. 

The story begins and centers around Pearl. Pearl, when we first meet her, is the most content and even-keeled, boring person. She has worked at Apricinty for almost 10 years and enjoys her work as a technician. Her job entails telling people how to be happy. Or, more specifically, reading the results of their Apricity test. The results the machine spits out (everything from ea a spoonful of honey before bed to cut off 1/4 of your finger) are obscure, seemingly random but almost always makes a person happier. Or does it?

Besides Pearl, we also meet all those who orbit her. First her son, Rhett, who is troubled and rejects the idea of being happy (much less taking an Apricinty). Then her ex-husband Elliot, his new wife Val, a young horror movie queen named Calla, and several other supporting characters.

Although the book is told through alternating POVs, which I loved, Pearl always remains the center of the reader's experience. I think it is amazing that Williams was able to have a clear main character with tons of other compelling storylines and POVs woven throughout the book. This makes the theme and analysis of relationships, which is the cornerstone of this book, even more impactful.  

Although Apricinty seems like an easy way to attain happiness it is clear that the characters who use it, work for it, and market it shows that Apricinty is anything but. Apricinty, in the book, becomes a character of its own. It becomes an obsession of Pearl's, the key in figuring out a teen mystery, the reason for a business deal gone bad, an art project, and even turned on its head to show that what will make people happy isn't always a good, easy, or legal thing.

For those interested in a lighter, funnier, strange Black Mirror-esque read, I highly suggest picking up this book. I'm no Apricnty, but I think it will definitely make you happier! 

Imagine a world where the readout on a little computer screen can tell you everything you need to leave a satisfied, happy life. In a culture surrounded by quick fixes and get rich quick schemes, it doesn't seem so far fetched that a society would be drawn to something like the Apricity machine in the novel. But is it to good to be true?

I always used to think I hated sci-fi and speculative fiction, but I'm finding that perhaps it isn't the genre the puts me off, but rather the focus. Though the technology is literally at the center of this novel, it certainly doesn't feel that way. It is thoughtful and character-driven, even through the various narrators we cycle through during the story.