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.

To read this, and other book reviews, visit my website: http://makinggoodstories.wordpress.com/.

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.