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.